Abbasi urges NAB chief to quash fake cases

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has urged the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to “read” the law governing the accountability watchdog and quash the “fake cases” registered against various politicians including him.

“The case filed against me continues for the last four year. This NAB drama must stop,” Abbasi, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who has distanced himself from the ruling party’s affairs recently, said while talking to the media on Tuesday outside an accountability court.

He said NAB filed a reference against him despite the fact that he is the biggest taxpayer in Pakistan. He said this was the reason why investors did not come to Pakistan. “If the chief justice of Pakistan wants to take suo motu notices, he should take notice of this [injustice],” he said.

“How can a common man get justice here when a former prime minister is deprived of it?” he asked.

NAB in December 2019 filed a reference against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and nine others for allegedly misusing powers in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import agreement, causing a loss of Rs47 billion to the national exchequer.

The anti-corruption watchdog initiated an inquiry against Abbasi and his predecessor Nawaz Sharif over alleged misuse of authority in 2018. Abbasi and a few others were accused of illegally awarding an 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 almost one-and-a-half years after NAB Karachi office closed a similar inquiry against Abbasi for his alleged role in the award of a multi-billion rupee contract for import and distribution of the LNG.

Abbasi said the proceedings of courts should be telecast live so that people may decide for themselves who indulged in corruption. He said the country could not progress if the system remained in place.

“The prime minister should abolish NAB otherwise NAB will destroy the country,” he said.

He lamented that for the last 24 years, politicians had been bearing the brunt of the NAB law but still they had failed to abolish it. Former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf established NAB through the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO),

1999 as an accountability institution with sweeping powers.

The PML-N led coalition government that came to power in April last year after ousting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government through a vote of no confidence swiftly made changes in the NAO, 1999 in what was termed by many as an attempt to defang NAB.

However, the government last month introduced another bill in the National Assembly to make more changes in the NAB law to once again empower the NAB chairman on the demand of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Talking with reference to the ongoing talks between the ruling coalition and the PTI over holding general elections in the country on the same date, he said there is no point in holding the negotiations when the intentions are not good.

He accused PTI chief Imran Khan of using state institutions during his rule for targeting his opponents.