KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court directed the jail authorities on Wednesday to release Pak Sarzameen Party president Anis Qaimkhani and Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui, and also issued a notice to the prosecution on bailapplications of city mayor Waseem Akhtar and PPP leader Qadir Patel in a case registered for sheltering and treating alleged terrorists.

Former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain, a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, has been booked on a complaint of the Rangers for allegedly treating and harbouring suspected terrorists, `politicaP militants and gangsters at the North Nazimabad and Clifton branches of his hospital at the behest of MQM, PPP, PSP and Pasban leaders.

Both MQM leaders with the PSP president and Mr Patel landed in prison on July 19 when the trial court dismissed their pre-arrest ball applications while Dr Asim and Usman Moazzam of Pasban were picked up last year.

On Tuesday, the Sindh High Court granted bail to the former petroleum minister, the PSP president, the MQM lawmaker and Usman Moazzam of Pasban with the direction to submit a surety bond of Rs500,000 each to the trial court and also surrender their passports.

The counsel for Mr Qaimkhani and Mr Siddiqui furnished the sureties as well as surrendered their passports and the ATC-H judge issued release orders of bothleaders and directed the jail superintendent to set them free if notrequiredin any othercase.Meanwhile, the same court also issued a notice to the prosecutor on the bail application of Waseem Akhtar and Qadir Patel.

Both leaders through their lawyers moved bail applications and the court fixed them for hearing on Nov 5.

Court officials and the counsel for Mr Qaimkhani and Mr Siddiqui said that the custody of both leaders was not required in any other case as the PSP president, who was also booked in an attempted murder and arson case lodged in 1994 in Hyderabad, had already obtained bail in the case.

The MQM MPA is also on bail in a number of other cases pertaining to hate speeches of his party founder.

Dr Asim and the Pasban leader have yet to deposit the sureties since their custody is also required in some other cases.

Dr Asim has yet to get bail in two references before an accountability court.

The first reference pertains to an alleged corruption of over Rs460 billion through fraudulent allotment of land, encroachment on state land for expansion of his hospital, money laundering, commission through fertilizer cartel for illegal curtailment of gas and fraud with the public in the name of charity hospital.

In the second reference, in which some top officials of the Sui Southern Gas Company and the Oil and Gas Development Company have also been named, Dr Asim and others have been charge-sheeted for allegedly misusing their authority and fraudulently awarding contracts of five gas fields to a privately managed gas processing company, JJVL, causing an alleged loss of Rs17.338bn to the government.