ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s non-bailable arrest warrants in the LNG terminal case were withdrawn by an accountability court, shortly after they were issued, on Tuesday.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader had been issued the warrants for his failure to appear before the court in today’s hearing and for not filing an exemption plea.
However, his lawyer, Zafarullah, filed a petition to cancel the arrest warrant, which was accepted by Judge Nasir Javed.
As a result, the arrest warrants against the former prime minister and co-accused Uzma Adil Khan, the ex-chairperson of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), were withdrawn.
According to Abbasi’s lawyer, the PML-N leader was on his way to the court but was delayed, which led to the warrant being issued for his failure to appear on time.
In 2019, Abbasi was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on allegations of corruption in relation to the awarding of a multi-billion rupee import contract for liquefied natural gas (LNG) back in 2013 when he was the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources.
A supplementary reference against Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, former finance minister Miftah Ismail, MD of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), former chairman of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) Board, former Chairman of Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Agha Jan Akhtar, former chairman of OGRA Saeed Ahmed Khan, among others, was approved by the NAB chairman in 2020.
The accusation against the accused was that they awarded the LNG Terminal-1 contract through a non-transparent process.
The public office holders were accused of misusing their authorities in collusion with each other, resulting in wrongful gains of approximately Rs14.146 billion to EETL/ETPL/ECL in connection with LNG Terminal-1 of EETL, as well as a wrongful loss of approximately Rs7.438 billion for the non-utilisation of the unused capacity of the second LNG Terminal of PGPL from March 2015 to September 2019.
The total liability of the accused amounted to approximately Rs21.584 billion until September 2019.
