Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and opposition leader in the National Assembly, Shahbaz Sharif, would soon return to the country.
Talking to the media after appearing before the Accountability Court in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) case, Abbasi said that the government would face humiliation over the letter written by it to the British government for extradition of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who was currently in London.
He said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was being used for political engineering, and this was an old tactic.
"The NAB has the only objective of defaming political leaders," Abbasi said, adding that the NAB had crippled and destroyed the country.
Former prime minister said that despite passage of six months, the NAB had failed to prove charges leveled against him. "After the NAB Amendment Ordinance 2019, the allegation of misuse of authority has ended," he said.
Abbasi said that the NAB was pressurizing his relatives and friends that there assets belonged to him.
About the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)'s probe regarding flour and sugar crises, he said that the FIA could not investigate the issue related to flour and sugar crises.
Abbasi said that the government needed to constitute a parliamentary committee for that purpose.
Earlier, he appeared before the Accountability Court judge, Azam Khan, in the LNG scam.
Other accused including Uzma Adil Khan, chairperson of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) appeared, and the court marked their presence.
Other accused including former finance minister Miftah Ismail, Hussain Dawood, Agha Jan Akhtar, and Abdullah Dawood, did not appear before the court, as the court granted them permanent exemption from personnel appearance before it.
During the hearing, defence counsel Barrister Zafarullah told the court that the NAB had not so far produced the supplementary reference before the court.
The NAB prosecutor, Usman Mirza, told the court that the preparation of the supplementary reference was in its final stage, and would soon be present before the court.
The investigation officer (IO) of the NAB has produced progress report about declaring accused former managing director (MD) of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Shahid Muzaffarul Islam as proclaimed offender.
He told the court that the accused Islam was not available at any of his addresses.
The IO requested the court to formally declare Islam a proclaimed offender. The court after hearing the arguments adjourned hearing till April 1st.
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.
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