ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Thursday granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 11-day physical remand of former finance minister Miftah Ismail in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal case.
Accountability court judge Tahir Mehmood also granted NAB 11-day remand of former Pakistan State Oil (PSO) managing director Sheikh Imranul Haq. The anti-graft body will now present the accused in court on August 19.
Ismail and Haq were arrested by NAB on Wednesday after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected their plea for bail extension in the LNG terminal case on the grounds that there were no “extraordinary circumstances of hardship”.
At the IHC hearing, NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi read out the testimony of former petroleum secretary Abid Saeed, the approver in the case.
The prosecutor informed the IHC that the approver had offered testimony on Ismail’s role in the LNG contract case, which is said to have caused a loss of Rs1.54 billion to the national exchequer.
Ismail’s counsel, Haider Waheed, told the high court that NAB had first issued a call-up notice to his client on July 15 but issued arrest warrants just a day later on July 16. He maintained that NAB only wanted to arrest Ismail over political reasons.
