The Accountability Court on Thursday turned down National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) request for extension in physical remand of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former finance minister Miftah Ismail, and sent them to jail in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) case.
The NAB officials produced Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Abbasi and Ismail, and former managing director (MD) Pakistan States Oil (PSO) Shaikh Imran-ul-Haque on expiry of their physical remand. The NAB prosecutor requested the court to extend the physical remand of the accused for another 14 days to conduct further investigation from them.
Abbasi came to the rostrum and told the court that he has no objection if extension is given in his remand. He further said that NAB first arrests the accused and then makes case against him. "NAB officials are threatening two officers to become approvers," he further said.
He requested the court to conduct an open trial so that people could know what is going on in the country. "It is political engineering," he said.
On this, the judge while addressing NAB prosecutor said that this time he will not extend physical remand.
The court after hearing arguments rejected the NAB's request and sent all the accused to jail. The court ordered NAB to produce the accused before the court on October 11.
During the hearing, Abbasi submitted a nine-page written statement before the court. According to Abbasi's statement, the reason presented for investigations against him is the construction and operationalization of the M/s Elengy Terminal Pakistan Ltd (ETPL) and alleged misuse of authority by him in connivance with government functionaries of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Sui Southern Gas Company, Inter Gas System, M/s Elengy, and others that caused loss to the national exchequer of an approximate amount exceeding Rs 1.544 billion.
"It is not explained how the loss of the aforesaid amount has been calculated. The criterion adopted for calculation of the said amount has not been mentioned," the statement said.
The statement said, "During the past months, I have been asked to file replies to questionnaires after questionnaires regarding:- a) Qatar Pakistan LNG deal, b) M/s Elengy Terminal (LNG terminal), c) appointment of public sector company heads, d) use of foreign office vehicles, e) use of helicopter, f) use of airplanes, g) ECC decisions, and h) cabinet decisions. They also asked some vague questions on assets beyond means, benami properties and money laundering. The bureau investigators also asked me to produce financial details for 20 years."
He further said in his statement that he has submitted all information but the intention is not collection of information from him but the objectives is harassment, intimidation and humiliation. The issue of producing evidence is of secondary concern in NAB, he said, adding that the real purpose is to allege, persecute, conduct a media trial and demonize a person, and then to register a case.
In his written statement, he said that there is only thing that NAB did not ask him and that is how much taxes he paid, if anything? "My tax record is an incontrovertible fact and NAB decided to ignore that," he added.
"I stand before you as an accused and after 70 days NAB is still investigating my crime. Is this justice? It is a fact that NAB is pressuring senior government officials with threat of arrests and detention to become approvers against me. What crime has been committed in which they were aides or conspirators or abettors?" he said.
He said that NAB has issued statement accusing him of corruption. "I say if I am corrupt, I must have taken money from somebody," he said, adding that the LNG Terminal (M/s Elengy) project did not involve any government funds. Thus who paid money and to whom, and to what end? It took NAB over a year to say that your case is not of corruption. It is a case of misuse of authority.
"I say on full authority that I take full and complete responsibility for all decisions in my tenure and there was neither any wrongdoing nor connivance with government functionaries, to commit fraud or engage in illegal practices," he said, adding that he has asked NAB to define the authority of a federal minister or a prime minister and then explain the authority that was misused and how it was misused.
He said that if he is accused of misusing authority then what Miftah Ismail and Shaikh Imran-ul-Haque are doing here. "If I misused authority, why would I have done it? Definitely to gain some benefit? And that benefit has to come from someone and who is that someone and what is the benefit? And if I misused authority without any expectation of benefit then what my crime is or that of Miftah Ismail or Imran-ul-Haque."
Presenting facts about the Elengy Terminal and its operations, he said that in 2013 the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif embarked on an integrated national policy on emergency basis to overcome the issues of electricity and gas shortages in Pakistan. The only source of natural gas was LNG. This source was not new. Since 2004 Pakistan has been attempting to LNG infrastructure but all such attempts had failed.
In his statement Abbasi said that in order to achieve the supply of LNG into Pakistan and development of related infrastructure, it was decided by the cabinet to implement Pakistan first LNG terminal in IPP mode without involvement of any government fund. The IPP mode is the same process which has been used to set up all power generation projects in Pakistan since 1994, the statement said.
According to the statement, in this mode the government does not provide any funds and a successful bidder through a tendering process, completes the project through private funding within a defined period and is paid a 'Capacity charge' and a 'Utilization Charge' for a defined period. Hence its tendering process was initiated by SSGC, and through a competitive and transparent bidding process the project was awarded to M/s Elengy Ltd. The record of this entire process is with the government.
He said that the Capacity Charge and Utilization Charge in the case of an LNG terminal are translated into dollar per MMBTU rate. In this instant case the $/MMBTU rate of $0.46/MMBTU is payable by the gas consumer and not the government. Today the Elengy terminal is the only LNG terminal in the world operating at one hundred percent capacity. Hence the question to be asked is what is the loss to the national exchequer? "I will go on to say that compared to power generation with furnace oil, this terminal has saved the government of Pakistan over Rs 1 trillion," the statement claimed.
He said that in the instant case, the NAB investigations fell well short of establishing any case of an offence having been committed by him or misuse of authority, or causing loss to the national exchequer, and warrants immediate dismissal with costs/damages for loss of his liberty, prestige and dignity.
Later talking to the media, when he was asked if he was manhandled by a NAB officer, Abbasi said that he was not manhandled; instead he was about to mishandle the experts brought by the NAB.
To another question if a glass was thrown at him, the former prime minister replied in negative, saying no such act would go without retaliation. "If someone throws a glass at me, I will retaliate with the same force," he further said.