Shahid Khaqan, all accused acquitted in NAB's LNG reference

Islamabad: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) withdrew the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) reference against former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

After NAB's reference was withdrawn, the accountability court acquitted all the accused, including former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Earlier, NAB had decided to withdraw the LNG reference against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

It is reported that the decision to end the reference by NAB has been taken on merit.

The request to remove the reference was made by the former head of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), added the report.

It is pertinent to note that NAB arrested Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the same case in 2019.

In the reference, NAB claimed to have caused a loss of 21 billion rupees to the national exchequer.

LNG Case

It is important to mention that in the NAB inquiry, it was revealed that the management of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) and Interstate Gas System had awarded the LNG terminal at Karachi Port to M/S Engro in a non-transparent manner.

Along with this, SSGCL awarded 15 contracts for regasification of LNG at a fixed price per day to a subsidiary of Engro.

Not only Shahid Khaqan but also former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was accused of misuse of powers by awarding LNG terminal contract to 15 different companies of his choice.

In 2016, during the rule of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), NAB closed the inquiry against Shahid in the regional board meeting held in Karachi.

Two inquiries were sanctioned against him. When he was the former Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, one of these inquiries into his alleged involvement in irregularities in LNG imports and the other was related to appointing the president Naeemuddin Khan in Bank of Punjab (BOP).

However, Abbasi said many times that he did not commit any irregularity in the contract given for the import of LNG and he can prove his innocence at every forum and that the LNG export in 2013 was an important need.