ISLAMABAD , AUG 22 – The National Accountability Bureau filed a supplementary reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the LNG terminal reference.
The reference, a copy of has accused the PML-N leader of money laundering. The reference has accused him of receiving Rs736 million (not including his salary) after the contract was awarded.
According to NAB, Abbasi transferred Rs560 million of the Rs736 million to his son Abdullah Khaqan’s account. The bureau claimed that Khaqan was not able to explain how or why the funds were transferred to him.
Abbasi, who served as the PM from August 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018, after the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif , has been accused of awarding the LNG Terminal-1 contract in a non-transparent way. His son, and former finance minister Miftah Ismail, are among others who have been named in the case.
From 2013 to 2017, unexplained deposits of Rs1.4 billion and Rs1.2 billion were made to Abbasi and his son’s bank accounts.
PSO illegal appointment case
On August 5, Abbasi was indicted in the illegal Pakistan State Oil appointments case.
An accountability court in Karachi read out the charges against the PML-N leader. Abbasi has been accused of illegally appointing Sheikh Imranul Haq as the managing director of PSO and Yaqoob Sattar as the deputy managing director (finance) while he was serving as the minister of petroleum and natural resources from June 7, 2013 to July 28, 2017.
According to Haq’s LinkedIn page, he served on the post from 2015 to 2018. NAB has claimed that Haq received a salary of Rs4.95 million every month, while Sattar made Rs2.7 million per month. Their appointments caused a loss of Rs1.38 billion to the national exchequer.
NAB said that Haq had no experience in the field of oil marketing and was appointed on the basis of favouritism. The bureau claims that the appointment violated all the laws and rules set by the Supreme Court for managing directors and chief executive officers of public sector enterprises.
The PML-N leader, however, pleaded not guilty in the case.
