KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday ordered putting of the name of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the Exit Control List (ECL) after extending his interim bail in a case pertaining to alleged illegal appointments in the Pakistan State Oil (PSO).

A division bench of the SHC also ordered putting of the names of Arshad Mirza, Yaqoob Sattar and Sheikh Imran-ul-Haq, co-accused in the same case, on the ECL after confirming their pre-arrest bails.

The court also ordered sending of a copy of the order to the federal secretary for interior for compliance, a written order of the bench stated.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi appeared before the court during the hearing, and the court, after hearing arguments from both sides in the case, extended the bail of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Arshad Mirza, Imran-ul- Haq and Yaqoob Sattar.

The National Accountability Bureau filed a reference against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Mirza, PSO's former managing director Sheikh Imran-ul-Haq and deputy managing director/chief financial officer Yaqoob Sattar for allegedly causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer through illegal appointments in the state-run oil company.

The reference stated that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, serving as minister for petroleum and natural resources, in connivance with Mirza, misused his authority while appointing Sheikh as MD and Sattar as DMD of the PSO in violation of rules and regulations.

Speaking to the media outside the court after the hearing, the former prime minister said investigation into the case had been ongoing for a year, and questionnaires had been answered and arrests made to which no justification was given. "NAB remanded me for 70 days but did not ask a single question," Abbasi said.

Abbasi said that the PSO was a profitable organization during the three-year tenure of Sheikh Imran-ul-Haq and said that they had been implicated in the case on political grounds.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020