NAB chairman approves three references against prominent political leaders, former govt officials

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has approved the filing of three corruption references in different accountability courts against several prominent Opposition leaders and former government officials.

The NAB spokesman on Tuesday said that the first reference has been approved against Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Muhammad Hamza Shehbaz, Salman Shehbaz, and others, over the alleged accumulation of assets beyond means to the tune of Rs7,328 million.

"For the said assets, the accused persons laundered disproportionate funds under foreign remittances and loans — that had been proved fake," said the spokesperson.

"The accused were also operating benami companies held in the name of their employees or associates to place the proceeds of crimes for their benefits," he said.

The second reference has been approved against officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the sale of the Embassy of Pakistan in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Between 2001 and 2002, Major General (retd) Syed Mustafa Anwar Hussain, while posted as the ambassador of Pakistan to Indonesia, sold the building of the Pakistan embassy in Jakarta at "a throwaway price through a non-transparent procedure and without lawful authority", according to the spokesperson.

The accused thereby caused a loss of $1.32 million to the national exchequer.

Similarly, a supplementary reference has been approved against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail, ex-chairman of SSGC Board, former CEO of EETPL and MD of PSO Sheikh Imran ul Haq, ex-chairman of PQAAgha Jan Akhtar, former chairman of OGRA Saeed Ahmed Khan, ex-member Oil of OGRA Aamir Naseem, ex-chairperson of OGRA Uzma Adil Khan, ex-MD of PSO Shahid M Islam and others.

The allegation is that the accused, through a non-transparent process, awarded the LNG Terminal-1 contract.

The accused public office holders misused their authorities in active connivance with each other to give wrongful gains of Rs14.146 billion to EETL/ETPL/ECL in connection with LNG Terminal-1 of EETL and also caused a wrongful loss of Rs7.438 billion, approximately, for non-utilisation of unused capacity of second LNG Terminal of PGPL from March 2015 to September 2019.

Hence, the total liability amounts to Rs21.584 billion, approximately, till September 2019.

It is pertinent to mention here that further losses to be incurred for the next 10 years will amount to Rs47 billion, approximately, as the said contract will expire on March 2029.

During the period, unexplained deposits of Rs1.426 billion were received in the accounts of Abdullah Abbasi and Rs1.294 billion were deposited in the bank accounts of Khaqan Abbasi during the period from 2013 to 2017, during which the above-said LNG terminal deal was struck.

According to the reference, by concealing the origin of the aforementioned deposits and layering, the accused also committed the offence of money laundering.