Islamabad: An accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday acquitted former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the accused in the LNG terminal case.
The development came after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) decided to withdraw its reference against Abbasi.
Accountability Court judge Nasir Javed Rana conducted the hearing today. Abbasi appeared in court with his lawyer.
During the trial, the court announced the decision on NAB’s plea to withdraw the complaint filed against the former prime minister.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Azhar Maqbool told the court that the Bureau of Investigation withdrew the complaint against Abbasi.
In 2019, NAB arrested Abbasi on corruption charges related to a multi-billion rupee LNG import deal in 2013 when he was minister of petroleum and natural resources.
Chairman NAB on July 28, 2020, issued additional references against Abbasi, his son Abdullah Hakan Abbasi, ex-minister of finance Miftah Ismail, ex-Chairman of SSGC Board, ex-CEO of EETPL and MD of PSO, ex-Chairman of Port Qasim. confirm. Authority (PQA) Agha Khan Akhtar, former OGRA chief Saeed Ahmed Khan, former OGRA member Aamir Naseem, former Pakistan State Oil (PSO) MD Shahid M Islam and others.
The allegation was that the LNG Terminal-1 contract was awarded to the accused through a non-transparent process.
The state authorities are accused of misusing their powers and causing undue losses to EETL/ETPL/ECL in connection with EETL LNG Terminal-1 to the tune of $14.146 billion. About billions from March 2015 to September 2019 to deactivate the unused capacity of PGPL’s second LNG Terminal.
Thus, the total liability as of September 2019 is approximately $21.584 billion.
It is worth mentioning here that the losses to be incurred over the next 10 years will be around $47 billion, as the contract will expire in March 2029.
At the time, $1.426 billion in unexplained deposits from Abdullah Abbasi’s account and $1.294 billion were deposited into Abbasi’s bank account between 2013 and 2017, when the aforementioned LNG terminal agreement was signed.
According to the report, by hiding the origin of the said deposits and deposits, the accused also committed the crime of money laundering.
Abbasi has been promised by the accountability court that there will be no controversy about the LNG terminal in 2021.
In a detailed bail order, the court said the accountability watchdog’s case was not based on whether the former petroleum minister had financial benefits.
“There is no controversy about whether there is transparency in the LNG terminal.
The court held that the LNG terminal was developed in the public interest or that there was no need for research.
“NAB has failed to prove any reason to keep Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in jail,” the court said.
