The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Monday approved the bail applications of ex-Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani and former finance adviser to Balochistan chief minister Mir Khalid Langove. The BHC set bail at Rs 5 million each for the two accused in the mega corruption scandal. In May 2016, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) raided Raisani’s office and formally placed him under arrest. They also raided his residence and seized Rs730 million in cash and jewellery worth nearly Rs40 million. Further investigations revealed that the finance secretary also possessed valuable illegal properties in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority. Several others, including Langove, were also arrested by NAB. On July 11, the anti-corruption watchdog recovered assets worth Rs 1.3 billion from Raisani. According to sources, the assets recovered from Raisani were obtained through corrupt practices. Following that, NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal handed over the documents and keys recovered from Raisani to interim Balochistan Chief Minister Alauddin Marri during a ceremony held at the bureau’s provincial headquarters. During the ceremony, Justice (r) Iqbal said that assets worth Rs 650 million were recovered during a raid at Raisani’s home. The assets included foreign currencies, prize bonds, and jewellery among other things. Documents of cars recovered from the former Balochistan finance secretary’s DHA residence in Karachi were formally transferred to the provincial government as well. In 2017, the team, including Balochistan Finance Department Additional Secretary Ashaq Jamali, along with the Sindh government as well as Karachi DHA officials started working on transferring the registries of illegal properties to the Balochistan government. The efforts of the NAB Balochistan investigation team bore fruit as the illegal properties were transferred and handed over to the Balochistan government. Published in Daily Times, July 31st 2018.