Non bailable arrest warrant issued for Abbasi in LNG case.

ISLAMABAD: A non-bailable arrest warrant was issued for former Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday by an accountability court in Islamabad.

Abbasi was not present while Judge Nasir Javed Rana was hearing the LNG case, and the former PM did not submit a leave of absence request either. The co-accused Uzma Adil Khan, a former chair of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), also skipped out on the hearings.

The two were thus the subjects of non-bailable arrest warrants issued by the court. It should be remembered that Abbasi and Adil, along with former finance minister Miftah Ismail and others, are charged with awarding the contract for LNG Terminal-1 without using proper procedures and open methods.

Abbasi and the others were charged with breaking the law when they allegedly gave a business of their choosing the 15-year contract for the LNG facility. Over one and a half years after the NAB Karachi office ended an investigation against Abbasi for his alleged involvement in the awarding of a multi-billion rupee contract for the purchase and distribution of LNG, the investigation into the LNG contract case was started in 2019.

Eventually, in 2021, the Islamabad High Court granted bail to the former prime minister in the case and observed that it was outside of NAB’s purview because the senior PML-N official had not received any financial benefit. The high court is currently considering a request to modify the PML-N leader’s indictment in the LNG issue.