NAB asks top court to cancel Dr Asim’s bail

Ex-petroleum minister was granted bail by SHC on medical grounds

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the bail granted to Dr Asim Hussain by the Sindh High Court (SHC) in two corruption references.

Filing the appeal, NAB Prosecutor General Waqas Qadeer Dar argued that Dr Asim did not suffer from any life-threatening disease and was also undergoing appropriate medical treatment.

Thus, he contended, the bail granted by the SHC by its March 22 order was contrary to the facts, and the accused was not entitled to any such concessions under the law.



The NAB prosecutor general requested the Supreme Court to cancel the bail granted to Dr Asim in the larger interest of justice.

On August 2015, Dr Asim -- former petroleum minister and a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari -- was detained during a raid at the Higher Education Commission office in the Clifton area of Karachi over alleged embezzlement.

Later, the SHC granted bail to Dr Asim in two corruption references involving as much as Rs479 billion, after his counsel Anwar Mansoor told the court that his client needed medical treatment and complete rest.



One of the references against Dr Asim accuses him of embezzling Rs462 billion while the other of Rs17 billion for allegedly awarding illegal contracts of five gas fields in Sindh to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL).

Dr Asim is accused of concealing assets, granting illegal allotments, misusing authority, carrying out land grabbing and fraud and giving illegal contracts during his tenure in Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Limited (SSGPL). He is also facing a case in the anti-terrorism court (ATC).

On October 28, 2015, the Supreme Court had also disposed of Dr Asim’s plea seeking his continued treatment at a Karachi’s National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) when a panel of doctors declared that he did not require such medical attention.

Subsequently, the court based its orders on a report compiled by a team of seven doctors who stated that they had physically examined Dr Asim and did not find any abnormality requiring hospitalisation.