Daily Times

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) withdrew on Tuesday the liquified natural gas (LNG) reference against former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

The decision came during the hearing of the LNG reference presided by Judge Nasir Javed Rana of the accountability court. During the hearing, NAB withdrew its reference against the former premier and all other accused in the case, including ex-finance minister Miftah Ismail, Sheikh Imran ul Haque, Engro Chairman Hussain Dawood and Board member Abdul Samad Dawood.

Abbasi was present in court along with his legal counsel. According to the sources, the former MD PSO petitioned NAB to reconsider the validity of the reference. Following the request, the accountability watchdog decided to withdraw the reference on merit. Earlier, when the reference was filed, the bureau alleged that unexplained deposits amounting to Rs1.294 billion were deposited in Abbasi’s bank account during 2013-17.

It further alleged that Abbasi and the other accused had misused their public offices and authority by “illegally” awarding the LNG contract and were involved in corruption and money laundering. NAB claimed that the former premier awarded the LNG Terminal-1 contract through a non-transparent process and the accused public office holders misused their authority in connivance with other accused to ensure wrongful gains to the EETL/ETPL/ECL amounting to Rs14.146 billion.

The reference further alleged that the accused caused a loss of an estimated Rs7.438 billion for non-utilization of unused capacity of the second LNG terminal of PGPL (Pakistan GasPort Limited) from March 2015 till September 2019.