A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan on Tuesday granted protective bail for 10 days to Capt(r) Safdar, son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The bench restrained the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting him. It also directed Safdar to deposit two bail bonds worth Rs 500,000 each. Azam Nazir Tarar, counsel for the accused, submitted that the NABKP initiated an inquiry against Safdar on the allegations of accumulating assets beyond means. He said that the NAB kept issuing summons to Safdar at his old residence in Mansehra, whereas he has been living in Lahore due to medical reasons. He said the applicant failed to respond to the NAB summons and join the inquiry well on time. He said there were strong apprehensions that the NAB would arrest Safdar since it has adopted a practice of arresting persons on inquiry stage despite joining the investigations. He submitted that Safdar was a law abiding citizen and wanted to join the bureau’s investigation even if the charges against him had not been clearly mentioned in the summons. He asked the bench to grant a protective bail to the petitioner so that he could appear before the NAB and join the investigation. Published in Daily Times, October 24th 2018.