LAHORE  -  An accountability court on Tuesday granted bail to a co-accused in the Gujrat development projects reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former chief minister Punjab Parvez Elahi and others.The court directed the co-accused, Khalid Mehmood Chatta, to furnish surety bonds of Rs. 10 million to avail the relief of bail.

Accountability Court Judge Zubair Shahzad Kiyani conducted proceedings on the post-arrest bail application of the co-accused. During the proceedings, a prosecutor filed a reply on behalf of the bureau in the court. He stated that Khalid Mehmood Chatta was a former SDO of the Punjab Highway Department and was accused of misuse of power and corruption. He submitted that the accused was found guilty in the investigation and requested the court to dismiss the bail application.However, the defence counsel submitted that his client was implicated in the matter due to his connections with Parvez Elahi and Muhammad Khan Bhatti. He pleaded with the court to grant the benefit of bail to his client, as there was no evidence against him. Upon completion of arguments, the court granted bail to the co-accused and directed him to furnish surety bonds of Rs. 10 million for the purpose.

The NAB has accused Parvez Elahi and Moonis Elahi of receiving over Rs. 1 billion as kickbacks through intermediaries in more than 200 development projects in the Gujrat district during Parvez Elahi’s second term as chief minister Punjab.