KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday extended till Aug 18 the interim pre-arrest bail of former provincial minister Sharjeel Memon and others in a corruption reference.

The SHC had granted Mr Memon interim bail in a reference pertaining to possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.

When the matter came up for hearing before a two-judge bench headed by Justice Khadim Hussain Shaikh on Monday, Mr Memon and other applicants appeared before the bench, while a lawyer for two other suspects requested the bench to condone their absence since they had been tested positive for Covid-19.

The bench extended the interim bail of Mr Memon and other applicants till Aug 18.

The National Accountability Bureau had filed a second reference last year against the former minister and over 10 others including his wife and mother for allegedly possessing assets beyond known sources of income.

NAB had filed the first reference in 2016 against the former minister, then provincial information secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shallwani, some officials of the information department and private persons for allegedly committing corruption from 2013 to 2015 in awarding advertisements of provincial government’s awareness campaigns to electronic media that caused a loss of around Rs3.27 billion.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2020