ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Thursday set 16th of November for the indictment of former prime minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ex-foreign minister Miftah Ismail and other co-accused in the LNG terminal case.
During the course of the hearing, accountability court Judge Muhammad Azam Khan directed former prime minister Abbasi, ex-foreign minister Ismail and other accused nominated in the case to ensure their attendance on next date of hearing.
Earlier, the court accepted the requests of Abbasi and Ismail for one-day exemption from hearing.
At the outset of the hearing, Abbasi’s lawyer Barrister Zafarullah adopted the stance that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had written to make Miftah Ismail as an approver in this case while his client had been charged under section 3. The documents of this were not with the defence, he said.
“Charges could not be framed against them until provision of these documents to them,” Zafarullah added.
The NAB prosecutor told the court that the demanded documents had been shared with the defence. He said that Rs73 million were deposited in the account of Abbasi from his sources of income.
He, however, said that Rs1.02 billion in his account were beyond sources of income, adding that the former prime minister would be indicted under this.
The court asked all the accused, including Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, Ismail, ex-managing director of PSO, Sheikh Imranul Haq, former chairperson of ORGA, Uzma Adil, ex-managing director of Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Limited, Muhammad Amin, and others to ensure their attendance in the court on 16th of November.
