SHC grants 7-day protective bail to Miftah Ismail

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday approved 7-day protective bail of PML-N leader Miftah Ismail.

The former finance minister had approached the court after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) issued arrest warrants for him on Thursday in the LNG case.

His warrants were issued shortly after the NAB took former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi into custody near Lahore and shifted him to Islamabad in connection with an ongoing inquiry into the case.

After Abbasi's arrest, teams in Karachi and Islamabad were dispatched to detain the former minister. By evening, a NAB team had secured warrant to enter Miftah Ismail's house in Karachi for a search and arrest operation. However, it eventually returned empty-handed as he was not at home and his phone was also switched off.

Both leaders were earlier placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) to restrict their movement abroad.

As per the LNG case, the NAB has accused Abbasi of handing over a tender worth Rs220 billion to a company in which he himself was a shareholder during his tenure as federal petroleum minister.

In early 2019, the NAB’s Executive Board had authorised two investigations against Abbasi. First investigation was about his alleged involvement in irregularities in an LNG import tender and the other was related to the appointment of Naeemuddin Khan as president of the Bank of Punjab.