KARACHI, June 30: Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany of the Sindh High Court granted on Thursday interim pre-arrest bail till July 13 to the sacked revenue minister, Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh, in five criminal and corruption cases. In a double murder case in which district and sessions judge (south) Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan has issued a warrant for his arrest, the ex-minister was admitted to bail in the sum of Rs250,000.

He, along with others, is accused of attacking and killing Chaudhry Salim and Chaudhry Rafiq and injuring Yasir and Zafar Iqbal, who is the complainant in a kidnapping-for-ransom case against him.

The kidnapping case is being tried by an anti-terrorism court. He was granted bail in the case till July 11 by an SHC division bench on Wednesday. Both the deceased in the murder case were related to the complainant, who lodged an FIR against kidnapping of his son, Umer Iqbal.

In three corruption cases, he was given interim bail to enable him to surrender before the trial anti-corruption court in the sum of Rs 200,000 each. He is facing a wide array of charges, including concealment of his property in London, forgery of revenue record to occupy hundreds of acres of land and misuse of authority to cause wrongful gain to him and loss to the public exchequer.

According to his counsel, Imtiaz Sheikh had disposed of his flats in London before contesting the October 2002 provincial assembly polls and there was no question of their inclusion in his declaration of assets before the Election Commission.

A sixth case pertains to illegal possession of forest land in Kandah Nawabshah. The bail in the case was granted subject to his furnishing surety amounting to Rs 100,000.