In the LNG terminal case brought against him, an accountability court on Tuesday issues a non-bailable arrest warrant for former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Following the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader’s absence from today’s hearing and failing to submit an exemption plea, the arrest warrants were issued.
A non-bailable arrest warrant was also issued by Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed for the co-accused Uzma Adil Khan, the former chair of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
Abbasi was detained in 2019 by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly engaging in corruption in 2013 when he was minister of petroleum and natural resources and awarded a multi-billion rupee import contract for LNG.
The NAB chairman approved a supplementary reference against Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, former finance minister Miftah Ismail, ex-chairman of SSGC Board, ex-CEO of EETPL and MD of PSO, ex-chairman of Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Agha Jan Akhtar, and ex-chairman of OGRA on July 28, 2020. Saeed Ahmed Khan, former OGRA member Aamir Naseem, Uzma, former managing director of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Husain Dawood, former director Abdul Samad Dawood, and others.
The accused was accused of awarding the contract for LNG Terminal-1 through an opaque method.
Accusations of Wrongful Gains and Losses in the LNG Terminal Case: Court Grants Bail to Former Petroleum Minister
The public office holders were accused of abusing their positions to give EETL/ETPL/ECL wrongful gains totaling Rs14.146 billion in connection with LNG Terminal-1 of EETL and to cause a wrongful loss of approximately Rs7.438 billion due to the non-utilization of the second LNG Terminal of PGPL’s unused capacity from March 2015 to September 2019.
Hence, the estimated total obligation through September 2019 is Rs 21.584 billion.
It is important to note that because the aforementioned contract expires in March 2029, further losses will total around Rs47 billion over the course of the following ten years.
In 2013 and 2017, when the aforementioned LNG terminal agreement was finalised, Abdullah Abbasi’s accounts received unexplained deposits totaling Rs. 1.426 billion and Rs. 1.294 billion, respectively.
The reference claims that the accused also engaged in money laundering by hiding the source of the aforementioned deposits and layers.
In 2021, a court of accountability decided that there had never been a dispute over the LNG terminal case’s lack of transparency and granted Abbasi bail.
The accountability watchdog’s case, according to the court’s thorough ruling on the bail, is not predicated on whether or whether the former petroleum minister received financial gain.
“There was no disagreement on the LNG terminal case’s transparency. The LNG terminal received approval from the designated forum, according to the court.
The court ruled that more research is necessary to determine whether or not the LNG terminal was built with the welfare of the public in mind.
“NAB has not been able to prove why there is a need to keep Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in jail,” said the court.