ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday extended the protective bail of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former federal secretary for petroleum Arshad Mirza due to the coronavirus-related lockdown.

On March 30, the high court had granted four weeks’ protective bail to Mr Abbasi and Mr Mirza in a case in which they are accused of making illegal appointments in a state-run oil company.

Both Mr Abbasi and Mr Mirza appeared before the court during the hearing of their bail petitions. Their bails had expired last week.

On Tuesday, an IHC division bench, headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah, modified the earlier order on protective bail and extended it till the third week of May.

Barrister Zaffarullah Khan, the counsel for Mr Abbasi, informed the court that since the government had suspended flights and train services to curb the spread of Covid-19, his client could not travel to Karachi within the stipulated period of four weeks.

The extension is until third week of May

He requested the court to extend his client’s protective bail to enable him to travel to Karachi where he is supposed to attend the proceedings of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

In March, NAB had filed a reference against Mr Abbasi accusing him of misusing his authority when he was minister for petroleum and natural resources and illegally appointing Sheikh Imranul Haq as managing director and Yaqoob Sattar as deputy managing director finance of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in violation of rules and regulations, allegedly causing a loss of Rs138.96 million to the national exchequer.

NAB had filed the reference against Mr Abbasi in Karachi’s accountability court immediately after his release on bail in an earlier reference related to the LNG terminal project.

Mr Abbasi had been behind bars for over seven months and was released in February this year.

NAB is finding it tough to justify the arrest of Mr Abbasi before the IHC.

Besides Mr Abbasi, former finance minister Miftah Ismail and former managing director of PSO Sheikh Imranul Haq were also nominated in this case.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2020