An accountability court on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants of former premier and senior leader of PMLN Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for his failure to appear in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) reference case.
According to the details, Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed issued the arrest warrant for Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, stating that he did not appear for court hearings, nor requested for exemption from his personal appearance.
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The case against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is related to alleged corruption during his tenure as Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, where he was accused of illegally awarding a contract to a company.
Non-bailable arrest warrant issued issued for Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
— Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat) February 21, 2023
Pertinent to mention that in 2019, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Abbasi for alleged corruption while awarding a multi-billion rupee import contract for LNGÂ in 2013 when he was the minister for petroleum and natural resources.
The allegation was that the accused, through a non-transparent process, awarded the LNG Terminal-1 contract to a firm at Port Qasim Karachi, at exorbitant rates. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was accused of misusing his authority to give wrongful gains.
The reference filed by NAB stated that one LNG company had received benefits of over Rs21 billion because of the contract. The reference said the national exchequer would suffer Rs47bn loss by 2029 if the contract in question continued.
Furthermore, as per the case, unexplained deposits of Rs1.426 billion were received in the accounts of Shahid Khaqan’s son Abdullah Abbasi and Rs1.294 billion were deposited in the bank accounts of the PML-N leader between 2013 and 2017, during which the above-said LNG terminal deal was struck.
On the other hand, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has termed the charges as “defective” and has maintained that the cases were made on political grounds.
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As per the latest updates, the non-bailable arrest warrants against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the LNG terminal case have been withdrawn.