Ex-PM may get benefit of NAB law tweak

An responsibility court on Monday reserved its order after listening to arguments of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and counsel for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi with regard to switch of a corruption case to a unique courtroom.

Abbasi, who’s going through a trial within the Islamabad Accountability Court-1 for alleged irregularities in a deal signed with Qatar for supply of the LNG to Pakistan at some point of his term because the energy minister, had moved an application to the courtroom for transfer of the case to the courtroom of Islamabad’s Special Judge Central.

The PML-N leader, who also served because the u . S .’s top minister, contended through his counsel that when a few amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999—the law that governs NAB—the case had fallen into the jurisdiction of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).The NAB prosecutor in his arguments agreed with the proposition that the case not fell into NAB’s jurisdiction and as the cases related to the FIA are heard with the aid of Islamabad’s Special Judge Central that case may also be transferred to the court docket.

After hearing arguments of each the events, Islamabad Accountability Court-1 Muhammad Bashir reserved his order, with a purpose to be unveiled on July 10. Earlier, the court docket also frequent the PML-N chief’s request to provide an exception for him not to attend that day’s hearing of the case.

NAB on December 3, 2019 filed a reference towards Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and nine others for allegedly misusing powers inside the LNG import agreement, inflicting a lack of Rs47 billion to the countrywide exchequer.

The anti-corruption watchdog initiated an inquiry towards Abbasi and his predecessor Nawaz Sharif over alleged misuse of authority in 2018. Abbasi and a few others have been accused of illegally awarding an LNG terminal settlement for a duration of 15 years to a company in their liking in violation of rules.

The inquiry into the LNG settlement case turned into initiated almost one-and-a-half years after NAB Karachi office closed a comparable inquiry towards Abbasi for his alleged position within the award of a multi-billion-rupee contract for the import and distribution of LNG.

The PML-N led coalition government amended the NAO, 199 through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Amendment Bill 2023. The bill have become a regulation on May 30 this yr.