Pakistan ex-Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi arrested in corruption case

Pakistan’s anti-graft body was probing alleged corruption in the award of contract to import LNG from Qatar when Mr. Abbasi was a Minister in former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Cabinet.

July 18, 2019 04:46 pm | Updated 04:50 pm IST - Lahore

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. File

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. File

Pakistan’s anti-graft body on July 18 arrested former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in a multi-billion-rupee case related to the award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract.

A National Accountability Bureau team intercepted Mr. Abbasi’s car at Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore and arrested him. He initially resisted the arrest but eventually conceded.

Mr. Abbasi, who served as the Prime Minister from August 2017 to May 2018, had come to Lahore from Islamabad to hold a press conference but he was arrested before reaching the venue of the event.

The NAB was probing alleged corruption in the award of contract to import LNG from Qatar by Mr. Abbasi when he was Minister for petroleum and natural resources in the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Mr. Abbasi has denied the charges and said that he would prove his innocence in any court of law.

He would be presented before a NAB court to get remand for further investigation.

Earlier, the NAB had summoned him on July 18 in the case but he skipped the appearance.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is in Lahore and the Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) alleged that Mr. Abbasi has been arrested on his direct order. “We strongly condemn this arrest as Imran Khan Niazi wants to put all opposition leaders in jail,” PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said. He said there has been unholy alliance between Imran Khan and the NAB. “This is a shameful victimization of opposition leaders by Niazi. Opposition cannot be intimidated through such fascist actions,” he said.

Mr. Sharif, three-time Prime Minister and PML-N supremo, is already serving seven years imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Mills case . Opposition Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s co-chairman and former President Asif Ali Zardari is also in NAB custody in fake bank accounts case.

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