MIftah Ismail granted interim bail till August 1 in LNG case.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday granted interim bail till August 1 to former finance minister Miftah Ismail and former managing director of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) corruption case.

A division bench, comprising acting chief justice Aamer Farooq and Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, accepted the pre-arrest bail against surety bonds worth Rs500,000 each.

At the outset of hearing, the petitioners' counsel pleaded that Ismail was currently on protective bail granted by Sindh High Court (SHC).

He stated that his clients were not involved in any irregularity or corruption related to the LNG import agreement. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), he added, had served call-up notices to the petitioners on July 15, and then issue arrest warrants against them on July 16.

The counsel said that NAB had told a court previously that Miftah Ismail would not be arrested. He prayed to the court to...