Karachi: Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday granted bail to Dr Asim Hussain, a former minister and close aide to politician Asif Ali Zardari, paving the way for his release after more than one-and-a-half years of confinement because of corruption, terrorism and nepotism cases.

Hussain was arrested in August 2015 over charges of causing 479 billion Pakistani rupees (Dh2.7 billion) worth of losses to the national exchequer, abetting terrorists by helping them get medical treatment at his hospital, allotting land illegally as well as misappropriating natural gas quota when he was serving as the petroleum minister during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.

He was held in different interrogation centres before being moved to Jinnah Hospital on health grounds.

An antiterrorism court had already granted him bail in various cases but ordered him to submit his Pakistani and Canadian passports so he could not travel abroad as long as the trials go on. The SHC today also told Hussain to submit his other foreign passport to the court before he was set free on bail.

Aajiz Dhamra, a PPP senator and the information secretary, in a statement said the higher court’s decision to grant Hussain bail is a moral victory for the party.

Hussain’s release is seen as a positive sign that the PPP has been accorded some reprieve to plan for the next general elections, to be held early next year.

Earlier, Ayan Ali, a model who was arrested by authorities on a money laundering charge, was also granted bail and after her repeated appeals to the courts, she was allowed to leave the country.

She is suspected to have laundered money on behalf of top PPP leadership.

Recently, Sharjeel Memon, a former provincial minister of PPP, who was in self exile for more than a year, returned home. He was wanted in several corruption cases which cumulatively run into tens of billions of rupees.

Soon after his arrival at the Islamabad airport, he was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) but released after a few hours. Memon, who is believed to be a close aide to Zardari, also held a political rally in Hyderabad last week.

The PPP has also kicked off its political activities in the Punjab and Sindh provinces as Zardari and his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is the chairman of PPP, have been holding meetings with the party workers and the leadership to development momentum of the elections.