The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday granted PML-N leader Miftah Ismail seven-day protective bail, a day after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Javed Iqbal signed his arrest warrants and dispatched teams in Karachi and Islamabad to take the former finance minister into custody.
The same day, an accountability court in Islamabad granted NAB 13-day physical remand of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was arrested on Thursday by a 12-member NAB team in the LNG (liquefied natural gas) import contract case.
Ismail granted protective bail
Earlier on Friday, Ismail submitted a bail application at the SHC, a copy of which was received by Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro's staff.
Advocate Haider Waheed, who appeared as Ismail's counsel, said that the case was based in Islamabad and requested protective bail so that the PML-N leader could contact the relevant court.
While accepting his application for bail, the SHC also asked Ismail to submit surety of Rs500,000.
In an informal conversation with media, the PML-N leader said there was no need for NAB to conduct raids, adding that he had received notices after 3pm yesterday. He said whenever the accountability bureau had summoned him, he had appeared before it.
A NAB team was also at the SHC premises today, where Ismail and former managing director of Pakistan State Oil Sheikh Imranul Haque, for whom arrest warrants were also issued, appeared.
Abbasi's physical remand
Meanwhile, former premier Abbasi was presented accountability judge Mohammad Bashir. NAB requested 14-day physical remand of the PML-N leader.
During the proceedings, Abbasi said: "They are seeking remand, give them remand."
"I have fully cooperated with NAB but I was still arrested," he said, adding: "I know why they are asking for remand."
The former prime minister asked the court to grant NAB 90-day physical remand. However, judge Bashir said that on the basis of the law, one-time 90-day remand could not be granted.
The court granted the accountability bureau 13-day remand of the former premier.
Abbasi arrested
On Thursday, Abbasi was arrested by a 12-member NAB team. A NAB team intercepted Abbasi’s car at Thokar Niaz Baig interchange, close to the bureau’s provincial headquarters when he was coming from Islamabad, along with PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal and information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb, to attend a press conference of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in Model Town.
The PML-N had termed the arrest to be the continuation of the 'worst political victimisation' at the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan and said it would continue raising voice against the "inept PTI government’s anti-people policies" even if "NAB-Niazi unholy alliance" put all PML-N leaders behind bars.
Ismail today said Abbasi's arrest was illegal, adding: "Pakistan has never seen a man as sincere as Abbasi".
Hours after the arrest of the former premier, NAB officials had raided Ismail's residence in Karachi’s DHA but returned empty-handed as the former finance minister was not found at home.
Though there was no word from NAB officials about the motive behind the raid and its link with Abbasi’s arrest, a senior leader of the PML-N, Mohammad Zubair, said that personnel of the anti-graft watchdog had searched Miftah’s residence.
"I went to his [Miftah’s] house when I came to know that there were NAB officials outside the residence," Zubair told Dawn. "At around 6:30pm NAB officials with women personnel went inside his house and carried out a detailed search. He was not there. He has not been in contact with his family or any PML-N member as his phone has remained switched off since afternoon. We and his family are concerned about him and no one yet knows his whereabouts."
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