ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has extended the bail pleas of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and ex-finance adviser Miftah Ismail by for days in the LNG case.
IHC two member-bench comprised of Chief Justice Athar Minullah and Justice Luba Saleem Pervez conducted the hearing of the plea.
The lawyer of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Barrister Zafarullah and Ahsan Iqbal’s lawyer Tariq Mehmood Jehangiri arrived before the court.
During the hearing of the same case, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) argued over Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s plea in which he sought bail.
According to the NAB, the evidence against Abbasi has been filed in the accountability court.
The NAB also pleaded the court to reject the former premier’s bail. In this regard, the bureau submitted a report containing 24 pages.
Abbasi on 1st February once again filed a bail petition in IHC in LNG case in which he pleaded the court that he had been in the NAB detention for 191 days and the motive of the bureau was to harass him.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) while en-route to Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore on 18th July in a multi-billion-rupee case related to the LNG import contract.
As the minister for petroleum and natural resources, he has been accused of granting contracts on LNG Terminal to Tri-partial agreement, LSA with EETPL and LNG import from Qatar.
In June 2018, the NAB approved inquiry against former premier Nawaz Sharif and Abbasi, who was the former minister for petroleum and natural resources at that time, in granting contract of LNG terminal for 15 years to their selected company. In January, the NAB interrogated Miftah Ismail in the same case.
Read more: Shahid Khaqan receives parole on humanitarian grounds