KARACHI: The Sindh High Court reserved its verdict on the bail plea of Dr Asim Hussain in two corruption cases. Dr Asim, a leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party and close aide of former president Asif Zardari, is facing the charges of depriving the public exchequer of Rs462 million by misusing his authority to get land allotted illegally, encroaching upon the state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital, money laundering and receiving kickbacks. A two-member bench headed by Justice Farooq Shah reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from the both sides at length. The order would be pronounced on a date to be fixed by the court office later. Dr Asim’s lawyer contended that ailing PPP leader was already granted bail in another case on the medical grounds. He had been behind bars for last one and half year and was seriously ill. He was shifted to the ICU of the NICVD due to a sudden heart ailment. The counsel said that according to the medical board constituted to examine the health of his client the PPP leader had lower back pain and needed to undergo disc surgery. He pleaded the judges to grant his client bail so that he could get proper medical treatment. The NAB’s prosecutor opposed the bail plea and submitted that Dr Asim was being provided suitable medical treatment. The PPP leader was facing grave charges and thus, he was not entitled to such relief. The NAB reference alleged that Dr Asim misused his authority to get allotted land illegally, encroached upon the state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital. He was also involved in money laundering and receiving kickbacks. Other accused who are facing charges are former petroleum secretary Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, administrator of Ziauddin Medical Centre, Dubai Abdul Hameed, former directors of the Karachi Development Authority Syed Athar Hussain and Masod Haider and Karachi Dock Labour Board’s former chief executive officer Safdar Hussain. Dr Asim Hussain is also facing another reference for illegally awarding multi-billion gas processing contracts to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited and thus embezzlingRs 17 billion. According to the NAB, the accused allowed the JJVL to process gas at different gas fields without conducting an open auction, signing agreements and memorandums of understanding as required by law, thus causing a loss of Rs 17.4 billion to the national exchequer. Other accused included SSGC managing director Khalid Rehman and former officials Zuhair Siddiqui, Azeem Iqbal, Shoaib Warsi, Yusuf Jamil Ansari and Malik Usman, OGDCL former managing director Basharat Mirza and official, Zahid Bakhtiar and JJVL chief executive officer, Iqbal Z Ahmed.