ISLAMABAD  -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday granted protective bail to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in a money-laundering case.

A single bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb approved the bail for the former president.

He approached the high court a day after a banking court in Karachi issued non-bailable warrants for his arrest.

The banking court on Friday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Zardari and other accused in the case over their absence from the trial proceedings.

The court issued NBWs for PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Namar Majeed, Aslam Masood, Arif Khan, Naseer Abdullah Hussain, Adnan Javed, Mohammad Umair, Iqbal, Azam Wazir Khan, Zain Malik and Mustafa Zulqarnain.

Zardari had filed a petition in the IHC through his counsels Aitzaz Ahsan and Latif Khosa after a local banking court on Friday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the former president and other absconding suspects in an ongoing probe against a multi-billion rupees money-laundering scam.

In his plea, the former president had also requested that he be exempted from appearing before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The court ordered that the suspects be arrested and presented before it on September 4.

Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are among the suspects named in the money-laundering scam. Ms Talpur has already obtained bail from the trial court.

According to the FIR registered by FIA, transactions of billions of rupees were made into suspicious accounts, including the one owned by the PPP leaders, the Zardari Group, which is accused of receiving Rs15 million of the laundered money.