ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to former president Asif Ali Zardari till July 28 while giving the ruling on his bail application. The IHC ordered Mr Zardari to submit a surety bond amounting to Rs0.5 million to the court.
On Tuesday, the IHC summoned PPP Co-Chairman and former president Zardari for Wednesday in the case of his pre-bail application.
The IHC division bench consisting of Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Amir Farooq heard the pre-arrest bail plea filed by the former president and granted him the interim bail till July 28.
Though Zardri is ill and is under treatment in hospital, he decided to appear before the court against the advice of his doctors.
He reached Islamabad from Karachi on Tuesday night where he was hospitalised. Sources said he was taken out of airport on a wheelchair.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had issued a call-up notice to the former president on June 15 directing him to appear before the accountability watchdog on June 24. The NAB was investigating Zardari’s ownership of a flat in New York.
But the former president filed an application in the IHC terming the NAB’s call-up notice baseless and an attempt to soil his name. The petition denied NAB’s claim that the property belonged to Mr Zardari and that the notice was issued just to harass him at the behest of PTI government. The petition pleaded to the court to grant him interim bail till the case was decided.
