Rawalpindi (Staff Report): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has excused himself from appearing before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday (today) in an ongoing investigation pertaining to the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) contract case.
The anti-corruption watchdog had summoned Abbasi to appear before’s Rawalpindi office today.
On September 10, 2018, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the NAB to complete the inquiry against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and others for the alleged corruption in the LNG contract with Qatar.
In June 2018, the NAB approved inquiry against former premier Nawaz Sharif and Abbasi, who was then former minister for petroleum and natural resources, in granting contract of LNG terminal for 15 years to their ‘favourite’ company.
According to NAB documents, the contract for the LNG import and distribution was awarded to the Elengy Terminal, a subsidiary of Engro, in 2013 in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and relevant laws.
The PML-N government in its tenure from 2013-2018 completed two LNG terminals, while just days before completion of its term, on May 31, it stopped the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) from going ahead with bidding for the allocation of a site for constructing a third terminal.