ISLAMABAD Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former prime minister, and other defendants in the LNG terminal case were cleared on Tuesday by an accountability court in Islamabad.
The move was made in response to the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) decision to revoke its complaint against Abbasi.
Today’s hearing was presided over by Judge Nasir Javed Rana of the Accountability Court. Abbasi was in court with his attorneys as well.
The NAB petitioned the court to have its reference against the former prime minister withdrawn, and the court delivered its decision during the hearing.
The court was informed by Deputy Prosecutor Azhar Maqbool that the accountability bureau is rescinding the referral against Abbasi.
When Abbasi was the minister in 2013, the NAB detained him in 2019 on charges of corruption related to the allocation of an LNG import contract worth billions of rupees.
A supplementary reference against Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, former finance minister Miftah Ismail, former SSGC Board chairman, former CEO of EETPL and MD of PSO, former chairman of Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Agha Jan Akhtar, former OGRA chairman Saeed Ahmed Khan, former OGRA member Aamir Naseem, Uzma, former MD of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Shahid M Islam, and others were approved on July 28, 2020 by the chairman of the NAB.
It was alleged that the accused obtained the contract for LNG Terminal-1 through a non-transparent process.
