Chief justice Ajmal Mian, after hearing a leave to appeal filed by Benazir's counsel in Karachi yesterday, granted an interim stay on an earlier order by a division bench of the Sindh high court and constituted a three-member supreme court bench to hear the appeal.

Sindh high court on September 1 had dismissed identical appeals by Benazir and Zardari seeking permanent injunction against government restraining it from corresponding with foreign countries on all allegations regarding money laundering and its siphoning to accounts in foreign banks.

Benazir, in her appeal before the chief justice had sought clarification from the court whether she could be held responsible for any illegal act or irregularity committed by acompetent authority in her regime.

Earlier, on the basis of correspondence and evidence provided by pakistani authorities, a Swiss judge, Daniel Devaud, had indicted both Benazir and Asif Zardari in cases of receiving kickbacks from a Swiss company in return for a Pakistan government contract and also of money laundering through swiss banks.