NAB arrests former finance minister Muftih in graft case

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday arrested former Finance Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) leader Mutih Ismael and former Pakistan State Oil (PSO) managing director Imranul Haq in the pricing case of LNG.

They were taken into custody by the NAB ater the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected their bails ater hearing their lawyers for two hours. Both were on interim bails, granted by the IHC. They appeared before it for extension of their bails.

Already, former Prime Minister and PML-N Senior Vice President Shahid Khakan Abbasi is already in the NAB custody for the past few weeks in the same case.

Ismail served as the finance minister for a few months ater his predecessor Ishaq Dar went to London not to come back due to the NAB cases.

The IHC said that the Supreme Court has ruled that bail could be granted to the accused required by the NAB only in a very hardship cases. It said the bail pleas of Ismail and Imranul Haq did not fall in this category. Ismail’s lawyer said that his client constantly associated himself with the NAB investigations whenever he was called. Therefore, he said, there is no need to arrest him.

PML-N leaders severely condemned the arrests and said these were part of the continuing witchhunting by the NAB at the behest of the Imran Khan government. They said this policy has to be abandoned. According to a media report, the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has imposed a ban on the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by all public service vehicles (PSVS), including school vans, to ensure “safety of public life and property.”

Subsequent to the ban, the motorway police laun¬ch¬ed a crackdown on such public service vehicles passing through M-1 and M-2 motorways, while the CNG owners association pledged to challenge the move in court. In leters writen to the Ministry of Energy, the provincial governments, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government, top police officials and CNG associations, Ogra said it had taken the decision on the recommendations of the Punjab and Sindh governments in accordance with a Sindh High Court (SHC) order.