The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday granted post-arrest bail to former finance minister and PML-N leader Miftah Ismail and ordered his immediate release
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News / Online - 23rd December, 2019) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday granted post-arrest bail to former finance minister and PML-N leader Miftah Ismail and ordered his immediate release.The former finance minister was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in August this year and faces charges in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal contract case.After four months of detention, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb accepted Ismail's bail plea against a surety amount of Rs10 million.
Ismail joins other PML-N leaders currently out on bail including former premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, and ex-Punjab chief minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif.Ismail's petition said the grounds of his arrest were "wholly inadequate to justify the continued incarceration of such an illustrious citizen on concocted and cooked-up allegations".Miftah's counsel said the anti-graft watchdog had failed to prove any loss to the national exchequer through any wrongdoing of his client.
The petition stated that NAB had alleged the LNG terminal project was awarded fraudulently and at a higher cost, but it never made any effort to provide data to prove its claim."However, despite keeping the petitioner in custody, it is blindingly obvious that NAB does not have any material to justify its claim of exorbitant returns."When IHC chief justice inquired about physical remand of Miftah Ismail, NAB prosecutor informed the court that he remained under NAB custody for 49 days, adding that investigation into LNG from his underway.The prosecutor informed that a temporary reference has been filed in which chairman Sui-Suthern Company Zaheer Sadique was a witnessed and he is being threatened.
