Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday granted pre-arrest bail to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former petroleum secretary Arshad Mirza in alleged illegal appointments in the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) case.

The division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh approved the pre-arrest bail of Abbasi and Mirza against surety bonds of Rs500,000 each.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) accused Abbasi and Mirza of making appointments of managing director and deputy managing director of PSO on illegal grounds and filed a reference in an accountability court in Karachi.

Abbasi and Mirza had filed separate petitions with the SHC, seeking pre-arrest bail in the case after an accountability court in Karachi summoned them on June 9.

Abbasi, in his plea, maintained that the said reference against him was baseless and he "wants to appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court to defend self but fears arrests".

The former prime minister appealed to the court to grant him pre-arrest bail so that he can appear before the court to fight the reference.

NAB filed a reference against Abbasi and Mirza for allegedly appointing Sheikh Imranul Haq as managing director and Yaqoob Sattar as deputy managing director (finance) of the PSO in violation of relevant rules and regulation for which he was summoned by the court. However they were exempted from appearance due to unavailability of flights.