LAHORE, June 30: An ehtesab bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday granted an interim bail to former Punjab senior minister Mushtaq Awan in a NAB reference.

The bench directed the petitioner to file two bail bonds of Rs5 million each with the trial court. It also asked the court to conclude the trial within 15 days on a day-to-day hearing basis.

It directed Mushtaq Awan to deposit his passport with the trial court as a token for his assurance that he would not abscond the proceedings. He was further asked to bring his counsel on every hearing, and that he would not leave Lahore without the court’s prior permission.

Currently the trial court has recorded some 13 defence witnesses, while it has yet to record the remaining eight. Petitioner’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa gave an undertaking that Mr Awan would produce all remaining witnesses in the court in the meanwhile along with the relevant record.

The counsel contended that according to the jail record, the petitioner had already served nine years in jail after his arrest and deserved the grant of bail. He further argued that the petitioner was suffering from spinal and diabetic problem while he had also developed a complex liver problem during his detention.