Pakistan’s former finance chief nabbed in Qatar LNG case

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former finance minister Miftah Ismail was arrested on Wednesday by the country’s primary anti-graft body in a case involving a multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract signed with Qatar in 2015 for a period of fifteen years.
Ismail served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on finance and revenue in 2017 and was later appointed a federal minister for finance for a month. He is considered to be a close aide of opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President and ex-premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who had finalized the $16 billion LNG deal with Qatar as petroleum minister.
Abbasi is already in custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for an inquiry into the LNG case which the anti-graft body claims caused a loss of around $2 billion to the national exchequer.
“My client is innocent as there is no evidence of corruption or embezzlement in the LNG deal against him,” Haider Waheed, the lawyer representing Ismail, told Arab News after his client was arrested for rejection of his pre-arrest bail in the case.
Waheed accused the NAB of “political victimization,” saying the LNG deal was finalized before Ismail took charge of his office in the PML-N government. “This is a long legal battle now and we will continue challenging the NAB’s abuse of power at every appropriate forum,” he said.
Ismail is also being investigated for allegedly granting a 15-year contract for an LNG terminal in Karachi to a “favored” company. He denies the allegation.
Former managing director of Pakistan State Oil Sheikh Imran ul Haque was also arrested on Wednesday in the LNG import case.
Pakistan, a country of 208 million people, is running out of domestic gas and has turned to LNG imports to alleviate chronic energy shortages that have hindered its economy and led to a decade of electricity blackouts.
The country 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 ten years of the contract.
In Pakistan, the NAB’s anti-corruption campaign has become a topic of fierce political debate, and its focus on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political foes has prompted accusations of a one-sided purge. The government denies targeting political opponents.
Khan won power last year vowing to root out corruption among the country’s political elite and views the probes into veteran opposition politicians as long overdue.
“This is the worst kind of political victimization by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government,” Senator Mushahidullah Khan told Arab News while reacting to the arrest of Ismail. “This government is trying to hide its inefficiency and incompetence by jailing the opposition leaders who have served this country with dignity.”
Rubbishing allegations of corruption and kickbacks in the LNG deal, he said the gas import had helped the country revive a crumbling industry and create millions of jobs.
“Instead of thanking us for ending hours-long blackouts, they [the government] are putting our leaders in jails for nothing,” Senator Khan said.

Pakistan’s former finance chief nabbed in Qatar LNG case