Court adjourns hearing against Khaqan till Jan 19, in LNG reference

ISLAMABAD (APP): Accountability Court (AC) on Friday adjourned hearing till January 19, on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) agreement reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others.

AC-II Judge Muhammad Azam Khan conducted hearing on graft reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan, ex-finance minister Miftah Ismail and former Managing Director Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Sheikh Imranuddin.
During the course of proceeding, the defence lawyer continued cross examination of the prosecution witness Hassan Bhatti, Assistant Director, Ministry of Energy. The defense lawyers said the Islamabad High Court had ruled that irregularities were not corruption. He observed that also consider how trial would be conducted here in light of this ruling, he said.

The lawyer contended that there were no corruption charges in this case but only allegations of irregularities. During the cross-examination of National Accountability Bureau witness, Assistant Director LNG Hassan Bhatti, the defense lawyers objected that during the cross-examination other witnesses should not be in courtroom. The witness Bhatti said NAB did not seek permission from any authority to appear before the investigator. It was also true that he did not present the notice of the NAB investigator in the court. He further said that he had obtained the permission of the secretary to provide the record to the investigation officer but he did not produce that permission in the court.

The cross-examination of the witness continued and the court adjourned the hearing till January 19.
The cross-examination of NAB witness Hassan Bhatti will continue at the next hearing as well.