ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has Wednesday arrested former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail and former Managing Director of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Sheikh Imran-ul-Haq in the LNG case after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected their bail plea.
The anti-corruption watchdog detained both leaders inside the court premises after the bail petition was turned down.
On July 25, the Islamabad High Court on Thursday granted interim bail to PML-N leader Miftah Ismail till August 1 in LNG case. The court ordered former finance minister to submit surety bonds of Rs 5 lacs. In the next hearing, the interim bail petition of Miftah Ismail was extended by the IHC till August 7.
The apex court on September 10, 2018 had directed the NAB to complete the inquiry against former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and others for the alleged corruption in the LNG contract.
As the minister for petroleum and natural resources, he has been accused of granting contract on LNG Terminal to ETPL, Tri-partial agreement, LSA with EETPL and LNG import from Qatar etc.
In June 2018, the NAB approved inquiry against former premier Nawaz Sharif and Abbasi, who was the former minister for petroleum and natural resources at that time, in granting contract of LNG terminal for 15 years to their ‘favourite’ company.
It was also observed that this contract had allegedly caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
