KARACHI, July 9: PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari was ordered by the Sindh High Court on Friday to be kept in the city till July 12 when his application for a longer stay here for medical treatment would again come up for hearing.

A division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Gulzar Ahmed, also asked the Assistant Advocate-General, Habib Ahmed, to find out the next date of hearing of an accountability reference proceeding against the applicant in Rawalpindi. The information was not available with his counsel, Akhtar Hussain.

Advocate Hussain was arguing a criminal miscellaneous application moved in May. The application questioned the refusal of a special court for suppression of terrorist activities to order shifting of Mr Zardari to Karachi for treatment of his lumbar (backache) problem.

The bench asked the lawyer what was the urgency involved in the matter to warrant hearing during summer vacation when the application had been pending since May and the applicant's counsel himself sought an adjournment on the last date of hearing.

The counsel submitted that the applicant was transferred from Karachi pending the hearing of the application and had now against been shifted to the city. He was on Friday produced before the special court for suppression of terrorist court in the double murder case of former justice Nizam Ahmed and his son, Nadeem Ahmed, outside their residence in PECHS.

The condition of the applicant accused, the counsel said, was deteriorating and his spinal cord problem could be treated only in Karachi. The treatment was not available at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, where he was currently lodged. The counsel pressed for an order to allow the applicant to stay on in Karachi.

The bench wanted to know when the next hearing of the reference against the applicant being tried by a Rawalpindi accountability court was scheduled. It observed that the passing of an order to keep the applicant in Karachi would hamper proceedings in another court, which would not be fair.

The counsel expressed his ignorance about the next date fixed for the hearing of the accountability reference. The bench asked AAG Ahmed to ascertain the date/s fixed by the accountability court and also seek instructions for further hearing on July 12. In the meanwhile, the applicant would be kept in Karachi, it said in an interim order.