Former PM Abbasi arrested over allegation of corruption on Qatar gas deal

File photo of the jointly signed agreement between former federal minister for petroleum and natural resources Shaihd Khaqan Ababsi adn Chairman of Qatar Gas Boarad of Directors Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi in Diwan-El-Amiri in Doha, Qatar on February 10, 2016. Former PM of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Have witnessed the signing of the MOU's between Pakistan and Qatar. (PID photo)

• Last year NAB ordered inquiry into Abbasi over liquefied natural gas terminal project
• An anti-graft crusade promoted by the government has led to swathes of arrests of politicians

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), on Thursday arrested former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a spokesman for the agency said.
Abbasi is a senior vice president of the opposition Pakistan Muslim-Nawaz (PML-N) party of Nawaz Sharif who is serving a seven year sentence for graft. He was arrested on his way to Lahore to address a news conference along with PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif.
Last year, NAB ordered an inquiry into Abbasi over the alleged misappropriation of funds in the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) that the agency says caused the national exchequer a loss of about $2 billion. He is also being investigated for allegedly granting a 15-year contract for an LNG terminal to a ‘favored’ company. Abbasi rejects the allegations.
“They said they were from the NAB and took away Shahid Khaqan Abbasi with them,” Ahsan Iqbal, a senior PML-N leader, told reporters in Lahore. He gave no details of the grounds for the arrest.
Abbasi has served as a federal minister for petroleum in former Sharif’s cabinet and finalized an LNG import deal with Qatar. He then served for less than a year as prime minister following the resignation of Sharif in 2017. 
Khan won power last year vowing to root out corruption among what he says is a venal political elite and views the probes into veteran politicians — including Sharif and ex-President Asif Ali Zardari — as long overdue.
The National Accountability Bureau’s campaign has become a topic of fierce political debate in Pakistan and its focus so far on the new government’s political foes has prompted accusations it is a one-sided purge. The government denies targeting political opponents.