The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to approach the Supreme Court against the order of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that granted bail to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday.
A senior official of the bureau said that the NAB had decided during a meeting chaired by the NAB Chairman, former Justice Javed Iqbal, to file an appeal in the apex court against the bail granted by the IHC to Abbasi and Iqbal.
The anti-graft body had arrested the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, Abbasi, at Thokar Niaz Baig interchange, Lahore, on July 18 in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) case.
The NAB had filed LNG reference on December 12, 2019 before the Accountability Court and nominated nine accused including Abbasi, Ismail, ex-MD PSO Sheikh Imranul Haque, Agha Jan Akhtar, former chairman Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Saeed Ahmed Khan, former chairman 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 a loss of Rs 47 billion to the 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. Similarly, the NAB arrested senior PML-N leader and former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal in the Narowal Sport City Complex Project (NSCCP) scam on December 23.
According to the NAB, the record collected so far, revealed that instead of getting approval of the Central Development Working Party, the scope of the NSCCP was substantially altered, Iqbal accorded approval at his own and approved the same with mala fide intentions without taking the matter before the CDWP.
The NAB said that the NSCCP was initiated without any feasibility study in violation of the Planning Commission Development Manual regarding feasibility of new developmental projects.
It was necessary to prepare feasibility study of projects costing more than Rs 50 million and Iqbal enhanced the scope with mala fide intention by directing the design consultants of the NSCCP. "Later on, revised PC-1 costing Rs 2,498.779 million was prepared and scope was enhanced manifolds and subsequently, it was approved by the CDWP headed by Iqbal on July 17, 2014. Likewise the 2nd revised PC-1 costing Rs 2,994.329 million was prepared and was approved by CDWP on May 3, 2017," it said.
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