Zubair Qureshi
Around seven months since his arrest in July last year and after undergoing two major surgeries, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi finally moved a post-arrest bail petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday.Abbasi has sought bail through his counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan and asked the court to grant him the same till a verdict is announced in the matter. He is currently in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) reference that was re-opened by the NAB last year.
The former premier applied for bail on the advice of Nawaz Sharif, three-time former Prime Minister and the PML-N leader.
In the bail plea, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said NAB had failed to institute any case of wrong doing against him in the said reference. Under NAB or any other law, I cannot be implicated, says ex-PM in his petition.
After his arrest, Abbasi had made it public that he would not file a bail plea and NAF after finding nothing in the ‘politically motivated case’ would have to set him free. However, after Nawaz Sharif’s intervention and his own deteriorating health, he has now changed his mind.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has been vocally ‘exposing’ the NAB during his interaction with media and inside the court as well where he was brought for hearing. In one such interaction with media, he said he had to teach the NAB authorities LNG case and all the legal points related to it.
Miftah Ismail and former Managing Director PSO Imranul Haq who were also implicated in the same case have been released by the court on bail last year.
