KARACHI: Dr Asim Hussain, a close aide of former President Asif Zardari, may have to wait for some time to walk out as a free man as a two-member bench has declined to hear his application until he deposits his Pakistani and Canadian passports.
Dr Asim filed the application under Section 151 of CPC seeking court directives for its Nazir to accept the surety worth Rs 2.5 million in each reference without surrendering his Pakistani and Canadian passports.
The bench headed by Justice Farooq Shah refused to take up the application and referred the matter to the SHC Chief Justice for placing it before another bench.
However, the application was sent to the senior puisne judge for appropriate orders as the Chief Justice was in Islamabad to attend the full court reference of Supreme Court to bid farewell to Justice Amir Hani Muslim.
Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, who is the senior-most judge after the chief justice, declined to pass any orders and ruled, “Let the application be placed before the chief justice tomorrow.”
If the court not ordered Dr Asim to deposit passports with the surety he could have been released on Wednesday.
His lawyer contended that since his passports were already deposited with an anti-terrorism court in a case related to the treatment of suspected terrorists at his hospitals.
On Wednesday, the court had granted bail to Dr Asim subject to furnishing a surety of Rs 2.5 million in each case. He was directed to deposit his original passports with the Nazir. The court restrained the Interior Ministry from issuing him a fresh passport until further orders.