Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday said that he would not contest in the upcoming general elections scheduled for February 8, 2024.
Speaking to the media following his appearance in an accountability court in Islamabad, the former PML-N leader said the case against him has been pending in court for four years and during that time, no witness has come forward.
Abbasi further lamented that for merely making an addendum in a meeting he has had to be in and out of accountability courts and and said that “today’s NAB chairman does not even know that people’s lives are being destroyed”.
Referring to the apex court, he said it has opened at night for certain high-profile cases, but it has failed to take notice of other cases pending in courts for years
Earlier, the lawyer of the ex-PMLN leader had appeared at the accountability court before Judge Muhammad Bashir in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) reference against Abbasi.
His counsel had pleaded that as there was an intra-court appeal before the SC, the court should adjourn the hearing.
Abbasi is one of the 15 accused in the LNG reference and appeared before the court today. The hearing has been adjourned till February 13, 2024.
The NAB filed a reference on December 3, 2019, against Abbasi, former finance minister Miftah Ismail, former chairperson of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Uzma Adil Khan and others for allegedly misusing powers in the LNG import agreement, allegedly causing a loss of Rs47 billion to the national exchequer.
Abbasi and the others were accused of illegally awarding the LNG terminal contract for a period of 15 years to a company of their liking in violation of rules.
The inquiry into the LNG contract case was initiated in 2019, almost one-and-a-half year after the NAB Karachi office closed a similar inquiry against Abbasi for his alleged role in the award of a multi-billion-rupee contract for the import and distribution of LNG.
