Sindh High Court (SHC) Friday approved protective bail of Miftah Ismail, former finance advisor for seven days against the surety of Rs 0.5 million in LNG import contract case. A division bench of SHC headed by Justice Iqbal Kalhoro also granted protective bail to Imran Sheikh, former Managing Director (MD) of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) against surety of Rs 0.5 million in the same case.
Former Advisor and Ex-MD of PSO arrived in high court to secure the bail after former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) other day. Miftah Ismail, who managed to avoid his arrest at the hands of NAB a day earlier along with Imran Sheikh, reached high court in the morning and the filed the petitions the bail. Counsel for Miftah Ismail submitted that his client received a call-up notice on July 15, 2019 by NAB Rawalpindi in investigation against the authorities regarding alleged illegal award of LNG Terminal-I to EETPL.
The counsel told the court that his client intended to surrender before the court for competent jurisdiction for a relief as provided in law or before investigation officer at Islamabad in terms of said call-up notice for extending his cooperation in investigation. The counsel prayed the court to grant protective bail as his client is apprehending his arrest on his way to Islamabad. The bench accepted the plea of Miftah Ismail for protective bail for seven days and ordered him to furnish Rs 0.5 million surety bond. The court in the written order also approved the protective bail of Imran Sheikh, former MD PSO for seven days against the same amount.
The court directed both Miftah and Imran to cooperate with the NAB in the investigations. Earlier, the NAB prosecutor told the court that the NAB chairman issued arrest warrants for Miftah Ismail and Imran Sheikh when the counsel for Miftah submitted that the raid on the house of Miftah was illegal. Later, talking to media, Miftah said that there was no need to raid the house as he received the summons of the NAB after 3pm, adding that he always appeared whenever the NAB summoned him.