ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Textile Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin in response to his petition seeking pre-arrest bail, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk and including Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim, heard the petition submitted by the minister and granted him interim bail until Sept 25. The minister was also ordered to submit two personal bonds amounting to Rs500,000 each.

The court also issued notices to all those party to the case.

During the hearing, Justice Parvez inquired from the counsel of Makhdoom Shahab, Advocate Sardar Ishaq, as to how his client became a petitioner in the ephedrine quota case.

Sardar Ishaq informed the court that the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had filed the ephedrine case in Oct 2010 whereas Makhdoom Shahab was made part of the case six months after.

Justice Muslim asked Ishaq as to who was responsible for allotting the ephedrine quota upon which Ishaq replied that former director general of health Dr Rasheed Juma had allotted those.

In his remarks, Justice Parvez said the proceedings over the ephedrine case had been initiated during the call to attention notice moved in the parliament.

Makhdoom Shahabuddin had moved the SC seeking pre-arrest bail after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail petition and declared him as an absconder along with MNA Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.