LAHORE, Dec 16: District and Sessions Judge Rana Zahid Mahmood on Saturday admitted former MNA Asif Ali Zardari to bail in the narcotics smuggling case registered against him by the Lahore police in 1997.

Asif Zardari was ordered by the court to be released on furnishing two sureties of the sum of Rs1 million each. He is stated to have been shifted back to the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, for completing the formalities for his release.

Earlier, during the hearing of the case held in the Kot Lakhpat Central Jail, Zardari’s Counsel Farooq H.Naik argued his case for the grant of bail. He submitted that the case had been pending for the past four years without the recording of substantial evidence.

The accused, the counsel further submitted, had been implicated in the case on the basis of a statement by Arif Baloch during the police custody. According to the counsel, the statement against Zardari had been procured under duress only to implicate his client.

He further submitted that the Supreme Court had already granted bail to Zardari in all the other cases pending against him.

Prosecutor Iqbal Bhatti opposing the plea for the bail submitted that the bail in earlier cases had been granted by the Supreme Court on medical grounds and not on merit.