A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed an appeal by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the acquittal of former Petroleum Minister Anwar Saifullah Khan in the Mehran Gas reference. The bench heard the appeal against the judgement of a Rawalpindi accountability court passed on January 26, 2002.
The trial court had cleared the minister and Safdar Ali Abbasi of the Mehran Gas Company. Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Resources acting Director General Tajuddin Sherwani had made a complaint in 1997, claiming that the petroleum minister had set aside gas from the Dhodak Gas Field on personal selection, on the basis of political patronage and extraneous circumstances, to Safdar Abbasi of the Mehran Gas Company, ignoring public sector companies.
The minister was elected to the National Assembly and to the Senate as well. He was a member of the Pakistan Muslim League (Junejo Group) which supported the Pakistan People's Party in 1993 to form the coalition government of the late Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minster. Later the minister was appointed as the federal Petroleum Minister between 1994 and 1996. Safdar Ali Abbasi was also elected a member of the Senate in 1994. The bench said the officers of directorate gas had admitted that nowhere they found the minister's signatures or initials.