Khaqan Abbasi awarded jail facilities on par with Zardari

Accountability Court grants former PM’s sister’s request on health grounds

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court has ordered provision of jail facilities to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi comparable to those being afforded to former president Asif Ali Zardari. Abbasi had been arrested in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) scandal.

Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir heard the application for the provision of facilities to the former prime minister. In her application, Abbasi’s sister had pleaded that, since Abbasi was unwell, he should be provided a separate place in jail, a cook to prepare his meals according to the doctors’ advice, an air-conditioner, a refrigerator, a television, a tea kettle, an oven, a chair, a computer and printer, and two assistants from the jail. She had further pleaded that her brother be allowed to purchase newspapers, books and other items at his own expense.

The application also includes the names of thirteen persons who it requests should be allowed to visit him. These include his wife, sons, daughter-in-law, sisters and cousins.

Abbasi is currently in jail on judicial remand in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody.

Abbasi and former finance minister Miftah Ismail had been, in a previous hearing, sent to Adiala Jail on judicial remand in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) scandal.

Abbasi had been arrested by NAB while en route to Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore on July 18 in a multi-billion-rupee case related to the award of an LNG import contract.

NAB sources have said that Abbasi, in 2013, had awarded the LNG import and distribution contract to the Elengy Terminal in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and relevant laws.

Earlier, on April 26, the names of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and five others had been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) in an inquiry into the LNG scandal.