ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday granted pre-arrest interim bail to former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in the fake accounts case.
Shah has been asked to report at the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Rawalpindi office at 3pm on Wednesday regarding the Dadu Sugar Mills and Thatta Sugar Mills cases.
The elderly politician had moved the IHC on Monday as he feared that the accountability watchdog would take him into custody during investigation into the multi-billion-rupee money laundering scandal.
In his petition, Shah stated that he is 85 years old and is entitled to pre-arrest bail due to his age. It further maintained that the former CM has no connection with money laundering and his name was included in the case on political basis.
The former chief minister was named in a report by a joint investigation team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) tasked to probe the fake accounts case. He was among 172 people named in the report whose names were to be placed on the no-fly list.
On Tuesday, an IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani granted Shah interim bail against Rs1 million in surety bonds and directed him to cooperate with the NAB investigation team. His bail will remain effective until April 8.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur, other PPP leaders and several businessmen, are facing an inquiry into the money laundering scam involving over Rs35 billion money laundered through fake bank accounts.