KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday granted 10-day protective bail to former federal minister Babar Ghauri in a corruption reference and a money laundering and terror financing case after his counsel said he was to return the country on Jan 30.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro said that the bail was subject to furnishing a solvent surety of Rs200,000 in each case and the same will cease to exist on Feb 5 or on surrender of ex-minister before relevant courts.

The bench in its order noted that the applicant was currently in Dubai and moved the SHC through his daughter and apprehended his arrest at the time of arrival at airport on Jan 30 and sought protective bail in both cases.

The lawyer for petitioner, Shabbir Shah, argued that earlier his client had also filed an identical petition and on June 22, 2022 the SHC had granted him 15-day bail and he returned to the country, but arrested at the airport by police in some terrorism related cased in which he was exonerated.

He submitted that thereafter, the former shipping minister had left Pakistan apprehending his arrest in some other cases and since then he was under treatment in Dubai and wishing to return to the country again to surrender before the trial courts and sought protection.

Without touching the merits of the cases, the bench granted him protective bail till Feb 5.

The former minister along with MQM founder and other party leaders had been booked by the Federal Investigation Agency in 2017 in a money laundering and terror financing case, which is pending before an ATC in Islamabad.

The National Accountability Bureau had also filed a reference before an accountability court in Karachi in 2018 against the petitioner and others for alleged illegal regularisation of 940 employees of the Karachi Port Trust causing losses to the tune of Rs2.8 billion to the national exchequer.

Mr Ghauri, once considered a top lieutenant of Altaf Hussain, had fled the country in 2015 following a raid on MQM’s then Nine Zero headquarters in Azizabad. He spent some time in the UAE and then settled in the United States. Currently, he is not part of any of the factions of the MQM.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2023