An accountability court on Monday issued notices to five new accused in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) case against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Accountability Court judge Azam Khan resumed hearing in the LNG case against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others. During the hearing Abbasi also appeared in the court. A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor informed the judge that the supplementary reference has been filed against Abbasi and others, adding they can obtain a copy of the reference if they want to for perusal.
According to the supplementary reference, the PML-N leader had been receiving funds from Trinity Company located in the UAE, said to be working with an India-based firm, Siddhart Private Limited. A sum of $538,895 was transferred to Abbasi’s account in three installments from a Dubai bank, the reference revealed, adding that the UAE government provided the national graft buster with evidence in this regard and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) also confirmed these transactions.
However, NAB added, the former prime minister, when confronted, was unable to give a satisfactory explanation as to these transactions. It disclosed that more than Rs 637 million funds were transferred to the accounts of Abbasi and his son Abdullah. The court issued notices to five new accused named in the supplementary reference filed in the case to appear in court on next hearing on December 22.
Former prime minister Abbasi, Miftah Ismail, ex-PSO MD Imranul Haq and others are facing charges of corruption for awarding an LNG import contract allegedly at exorbitant rates in 2015, which caused a big loss to the national exchequer.
Separately, an accountability court indicted on Monday former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad and his family members in the assets beyond means case.
Judge Akmal Khan presided over the hearing of the case against Fawad and his family members, wherein the court rejected the bail pleas of the accused. Those indicted besides Fawad are Rubab Hassan, Waqar Hassan and Anjum Hassan. All of them pleaded not guilty. The court has summoned witnesses for statements against the accused at the next hearing.
In January, the LHC had granted bail to Fawad in the said case and directed him to submit surety bonds worth Rs10 million to avail the bail.
An LHC division bench – comprising Justice Tariq Abbasi and Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmad – heard the post-arrest bail petition filed by Fawad. As the proceedings resumed, Fawad’s counsel argued that the NAB arrested his client in 2018, but he was still to be indicted in the case. He submitted that it was claimed at the time of the arrest that Fawad owned assets of billions of rupees, but assets worth Rs108 million only were mentioned in the NAB reference. It was alleged that the petitioner possessed many properties, but details of the properties were not made part of the reference, he added.
He submitted that the bail plea was dismissed earlier by an LHC bench as the matter was under investigation, but then a reference was filed. He pleaded the court to grant bail to the petitioner. However, the NAB prosecutor opposed the plea, saying that the accused owned benami properties, which were in the name of his relatives.
