ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of Pakistan’s former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi till February 21 in a case involving a multibillion-rupee liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract to Qatar.
Abbasi, who is also the vice president of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, was arrested in July last year for alleged misappropriation of funds in the LNG import deal. However, he denies the charge.
The former prime minister on Saturday filed a post-arrest bail petition in the Islamabad High Court, but it is yet to be taken up.
“The petitioner has been in the National Accountability Bureau’s detention for 191 days, and the bureau’s real motive is only to harass the petitioner now,” the plea argued. Abbasi’s party, the PML-N, has also maintained that the former prime minister is politically victimized.
Pakistan is currently receiving a supply of 500 million cubic feet per day of LNG from Qatar under a 15-year agreement at 13.37 percent of Brent crude price. It is a government-to-government agreement and the price can only be reviewed after 10 years of the contract.
NAB officials believe Abbasi’s alleged misappropriation of funds in the LNG case has caused a loss of about $2 billion to the national exchequer.
Abbasi is also investigated for allegedly granting a 15-year contract for an LNG terminal to a “favored” company. However, he rejects the allegations.
Ex-PM Abbasi’s judicial remand extended in Qatar LNG case
https://arab.news/cqtbp
Ex-PM Abbasi’s judicial remand extended in Qatar LNG case
- The former PM filed for a post-arrest bail in the case on Saturday
- The anti-graft body claims the LNG deal caused a loss of $2 billion to national exchequer
Pakistan arrests suspect arriving from Cambodia amid crackdown on human smuggling
- Suspect worked at an “online fraud company” in Cambodia, later started smuggling people from Pakistan, says FIA
- Pakistan has intensified crackdown against human smugglers after hundreds of migrants drowned near Pylos in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday said it had arrested a key suspect involved in smuggling humans who had arrived from Cambodia, alleging he was also part of an international fraud network.
The suspect, identified as Zainullah, was arrested by FIA officials when he arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from Cambodia.
Zainullah had traveled from Pakistan to Cambodia in September 2024, a press release issued by the agency said.
“He worked at an online fraud company in Cambodia and later became involved as an agent in recruiting individuals from Pakistan,” the FIA said.
The FIA said it recovered images of multiple individuals’ passports, payment receipts and bank transaction records after extracting data from Zainullah’s phone.
It said the suspect received money through personal bank accounts and a cryptocurrency account.
“The suspect has been handed over to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle, Karachi, for further legal proceedings,” the FIA said.
“Further investigation is underway.”
Pakistan intensified action against illegal migration in 2023 after hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the Greek town of Pylos, one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean.
Authorities say they continue to target networks sending citizens abroad through dangerous routes, following heightened scrutiny at airports and a series of arrests involving forged documents.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said this week illegal migration to Europe has declined by 47 percent this year after its nationwide crackdown, saying that more than 1,700 human smugglers have been arrested in 2025.
