Pakistan’s ex-president granted bail on health grounds

KARACHI, Pakistan

A Pakistani court on Wednesday granted bail to the country's former President Asif Ali Zardari on health grounds, court record and local media reported.

A two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court, led by Chief Justice Athar Minallah, directed the jail authorities to release the ailing former president against a surety bond of 10 million Pakistani rupees ($64,580), local broadcaster Geo News reported.

Zardari's son and chairman of center-left Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who himself was present in the court, welcomed the judgement.

"We are thankful to the court for this verdict," he told reporters outside the courtroom.

Anti-corruption authorities last month filed a case against the former president and his sister for their alleged involvement in a money laundering scandal in an anti-corruption court in capital Islamabad.

Zardari and his younger sister Faryal Talpur, a member of the provincial assembly of southern Sindh province, were taken into custody separately by the National Accountability Bureau in Islamabad in June this year.

Zardari, the widower of slain premier Benazir Bhutto and co-chairman of the PPP, served as president in 2008-2013.

He, according to the medical report submitted before the court, is suffering from multiple diseases, including cardiac, and diabetes.

Together with his sister, he is accused of laundering more than 35 billion Pakistani rupees ($226 million) through fake accounts. However, Zardari has denied the charges.