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Miftah Ismail’s physical remand extended till Sep 12

Miftah Ismail’s physical remand extended till Sep 12
August 30, 2019
ISLAMABAD (92 News) – An accountability court on Friday extended physical remand of former finance minister Miftah Ismail and former Pakistan State Oil (PSO) managing director Imranul Haq till September 12 in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) case. The accused were presented in the court of Duty Judge Raja Jawad Abbas. During the hearing, NAB’s prosecutor pleaded the court to extend the remand of the accused, as they might need to confront the accused with other accused in the scandal. To this, the Miftah’s lawyer said that the NAB has failed in carrying out any investigation in 22-day remand of his client. The court after hearing arguments from the both the sides extended Miftah Ismail and Imranul Haq’s physical remand till September 12. It is pertinent to mention here that the anti-graft watchdog claimed that the LNG sector was suffering an annual loss of $228 thousand annually due to the underhanded practices carried out by aforesaid persons in the previous government. In the previous hearing, an accountability court extended the physical remands of former finance minister Miftah Ismail and former MD PSO Imranul Haq till August 30 in the LNG case. The NAB officials presented Miftah Ismail and Imranul Haq before the court of Judge Muhammad Bashir as their 11-day physical remand ended today. During the hearing, Miftah complained to the court that the NAB detained him in a little cell and only allowed for 23 minutes to walk outside the room. “If he walks more than only two minutes from 23, he is instructed to go inside the room,” he added. Later, the court granted physical remand of Miftah and Imranul Haq till August 30. Both Miftah and Haq are facing charges of corruption in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tenders and deal.
LNG Scandal
In June 2018, NAB had approved inquiry against Khaqan Abbasi, who was ex-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. The NAB in January interrogated former finance minister Miftah Ismail in the same case.