KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday recommended a reference against former prime minister (PM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for “illegally appointing Shaikh Imran ul Haq as managing director of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO)”.
In a press release, the NAB’s Karachi chapter recommended a reference investigation against Abbasi over the PSO MD matter as it said he, in his capacity as the former minister of petroleum and natural resources, violated the government’s “rules and procedures” for the “appointments of CEOs in Public Sector Enterprises”.
The bureau also emphssised that its “investigation revealed that Imran ul Haq was appointed as MD PSO due to having a personal affiliation with” Abbasi. The appointment was made without verifying his academic and professional credentials, it added.
According to NAB, the investigation “revealed that Sheikh Imranul Haq developed personal relations with the then minister petroleum during the establishment of the LNG terminal in the year 2013 to 2015.”
The former prime minister is currently on 14-days physical remand in a case pertaining to the LNG scandal. Abbasi is accused of awarding a 15-year contract for an LNG terminal against the rules when he was petroleum minister in the cabinet of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
The case was closed by NAB in 2016, but reopened in 2018.
