The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday granted post-arrest bail to former finance minister Miftah Ismail in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) corruption case.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard Ismail's bail petition, who has been behind bars for over four months in connection with the investigation into the LNG terminal case.

During the hearing, Ismail's counsel contended that his client is accused of hiring consultant illegally while the appointment was made by USAID and that he was not even on Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) board at that time.

Upon that Justice Athar asked how much remand of Ismail had been given to NAB. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor informed the court that Ismail has been remanded for 49 days till then.

When the bench asked about the status of inquiry, the NAB official told the court that the investigation is ongoing and an interim reference has been filed in the case. The NAB prosecutor opposed the bail, saying that the accused may flee the country.

He also informed the court that former chairman SSGC Zuhair Siddiqui, who has become approver in the case, is being threatened. After the arguments were concluded, the bench granted bail to Miftah Ismail against surety bonds of worth Rs 10 million.

In his petition, the counsel for Miftah argued that NAB on August 7 arrested his client in connection with the LNG terminal case. According to the counsel, "The grounds of arrest of the petitioner are wholly inadequate to justify the continued incarceration of such an illustrious citizen on concocted and cooked-up allegations."

Furthermore, the counsel said that NAB has also failed to highlight any loss to the national exchequer because of any alleged wrongdoing of Ismail.

According to the petition, the NAB without making an effort to provide benchmarks or any other data to show what is and what is not exorbitant is alleging that the process of award of the LNG terminal project was fraudulent and overpriced. "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."

The petition asserted that the allegations with respect to exorbitant capacity charges and allowances of idle time were prior to the petitioner's assuming of the role of a non-executive director of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019