Hussain Dawood, a co-accused in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import contract case, has filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to dismiss the case. The petition requests the IHC to declare the accountability court’s August 9 decision as ‘null and void’ and acquit Dawood. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is named as the respondent in the petition.
The Accountability Court, on August 9, transferred the LNG case against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former finance minister Miftah Ismail to the court of a special judge central. The court judge, Muhammad Bashir, declared that the case did not fall under the jurisdiction of his court, following the amendments made in the NAB law. Consequently, the case was transferred to the special judge central, who handles Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cases.
In the case, former Prime Minister Abbasi, Miftah Ismail, ex-PSO MD Imranul Haq, and others are accused of awarding an LNG import contract at exorbitant rates in 2015, resulting in a significant loss to the national exchequer. The NAB alleges that Abbasi awarded the contract to the Elengy Terminal in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in 2013.