LAHORE, Pakistan: The former Prime Minister and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has been arrested in LNG Case.
Sources said that a joint team of NAB Rawalpindi and Lahore stopped Shahid Khaqan Abbasi near Thokar Niaz Baig Toll Plaza on Thursday and took him into custody.
The former prime minister had been summoned today by the NAB in a case related to the award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract. However, he didn’t appear.
His arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday.
As per NAB Officials, the bureau summoned Abbasi four times; however, over his noncooperation, he was arrested.
It is pertinent to mention here that in PML-N’s era, when Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the Petroleum Minister in Nawaz Sharif’s Cabinet, he struck a deal with Qatar to import LNG.
Abbasi is accused of awarding an Rs 220 worth tender of LNG import and its distribution, in which he himself was a partner.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the President PML-N Shahbaz Sharif strongly condemned the arrest of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
صدر پاکستان مسلم لیگ ن شہباز شریف کا شاہد خاقان عباسی کی گرفتاری پر ردعمل
شاہد خاقان عباسی کی گرفتاری کی شدید مزمت کرتے ہیں۔
نیب کا ادارہ عمران نیازی کے ہاتھ میں آلہ کار بنا ہوا ہے۔
ایسے اوچھے ہتھکنڈوں سے ہمارے حوصلے پست نہیں کئے جا سکتے۔— President PMLN (@president_pmln) July 18, 2019
The NAB Sources said that the Chairman NAB Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has also approved the arrest warrant of Miftah Ismail and and the former Managing Director Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Imran Ul Sheikh in LNG Case.
In his statement, the Interior Minister Ejaz Shah said that NAB is an independent institution, whose Chairman was appointed by PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) themselves.
Ejaz Shah said that the accountability process has begun, and now everyone has to go through it for whatever wrong, he/she did.
Commenting on arrests of PML-N leaders, Ejaz Shah said that they must have committed illegal acts, that’s why they have been nabbed. He said that even the people belonging to the ruling party are also facing NAB inquiries.
