LNG case: NAB again files reference against Khaqan, Miftah

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday again filed the reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former finance minister Miftah Ismail and seven others in connection with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) case after removing objections raised by the Registrar Office.

The NAB officials on December 3 filed the reference in the Accountability Court but the Registrar Office after receiving the reference raised objections over it, saying that the documents of reference are not in order and pages of the reference are not numbered. The Registrar Office returned the reference to the NAB and asked it to resubmit it after removing the errors and injections.

The bureau has nominated 9 accused in the reference, including Abbasi and Ismail. The reference consists of 8,000 pages and the Accountability Court approved it for regular hearing. Accountability Court-II Judge Muhammad Azam Khan will hear the LNG reference.

Those who are nominated in the reference for misusing their authority include Abbasi, Ismail, ex-managing director (MD) Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Sheikh Imran-ul-Haque, Agha Jan Akhtar, former chairman Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Saeed Ahmed Khan, former chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), Aamir Naseem, former member oil OGRA, Uzma Adil Khan, chairperson OGRA, Shahid M Islam, former MD PSO, and Abdul Samad Dawood.

According to the NAB reference, one company had been provided benefits of over Rs 21 billion from March 2015 to September 2019. The benefits provided to the company will incur loss of Rs 47 billion to national exchequer because the contract would continue till 2029, the reference said.

The reference says that the contract will cost the public more than Rs 68 billion over 15 years in terms of gas bills. Former MD PSO Haque had played an important role in signing of the contract.

The name of Abbasi has been placed on exit control list (ECL) and the NAB is conducting separate investigations of Qatar contract, a NAB official said. Both main accused persons Abbasi and Ismail were arrested by the NAB four months ago while the third accused Haq has obtained bail from Islamabad High Court (IHC).