Hafeez Shaikh accorded VVIP protocol on arrival

KARACHI: Former finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was accorded extraordinary protocol at Karachi Airport on Tuesday after he arrived in Pakistan from the United States via Dubai.

According to airport sources, plainclothes personnel provided stringent security cover to the former finance minister and took him outside the airport. A large contingent of police personnel was also deployed outside the passenger lounge at the Jinnah Terminal.

The protocol officers of the Sindh Chief Minister accompanied Shaikh as he left the airport. Shaikh remained the finance minister during the previous regime of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He reached Karachi via Dubai aboard a UAE airline flight.

Shaikh didn’t carry any personal baggage with him. Earlier, the Sindh High Court (SHC) granted transitory protective bail to Shaikh in a corruption reference pertaining to procurement and implementation of customs computerised system pilot project.

The former minister was named as one of the co-accused in the corruption reference pertaining to illegalities in procurement and implementation of customs computerised system pilot project and causing loss to the national exchequer to the tune of US11.125 million.

Petitioner counsel submitted that petitioner name was malafidely added on the list of accused for politically motivated reasons as he did not play any part in the grant of contract by the government of Pakistan to private company for implementation of custom pilot project. 

He submitted the petitioner has not committed any offence as contemplated in reference but he was directed to indulge in negotiations with private company which threatened to close down the software system which was implemented to process custom clearance at ports terminal unless monthly access fees amounting to almost US$ 1 million per month was not paid.

He submitted that the petitioner, who was residing in Dubai, intended to appear before the accountability court and join the trial court proceedings but apprehends his arrest in the case. He sought transitory protective bail so that he could appear before the trial court.

The court was requested to grant transitory protective bail to the petitioner for 20 days so that he could appear before the trial court and join the proceedings. SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro after hearing the arguments of the counsel granted transitory protective bail to Abdul Hafeez Sheikh for 10 days and directed the petitioner to surrender before trial court.