Interim PM: Abbasi’s eligibility challenged in SHC

Plea seeks to declare PML-N’s nominee as not ‘righteous’ and ‘sagacious’

KARACHI: Even as PML-N’s interim premier-in-waiting Shahid Khaqan Abbasi prepares to secure trust vote in the National Assembly, he faces eligibility challenge in court over a multibillion rupee corruption reference in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court on Monday, seeking to declare Abbasi as “ineligible to participate in the election for the interim premier” to be held on Tuesday (today) in the National Assembly because he was a principal accused in the Rs220 billion corruption inquiry being carried out by NAB.



The petition filed by Justice Helpline, a non-profit organisation, prays that “Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former minister for petroleum and natural resources, was named as an accused in a NAB case registered in 2015 regarding award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract”.

Other suspects include former petroleum secretary Abid Saeed, Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) managing-director Mobin Saulut, private firm Engro’s chief executive officer Emranul Haq and the Sui Southern Gas Company’s (SSGC) ex-managing-director Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui.

The petitioner alleged that the anti-graft watchdog had stopped inquiry against Abbasi on the intervention of former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.



In the petition, it was argued that following his nomination in the corruption inquiry, the respondent was not a ‘righteous’ and ‘sagacious’ person, as required under articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution to be elected as member of parliament.

It was pleaded in the petition that the nomination papers filed by the respondent – Shahid Khaqan Abbasi – to participate in the election for the interim prime minister may be rejected for him being an ‘ineligible’ person.

It was also requested to direct NAB authorities to initiate inquiry against him afresh in the LNG import contract scam.