The NAB could not file supplementary reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others in the LNG case before an accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday.

During the hearing, the defence lawyer said the anti-graft body should explain the position about the supplementary reference and tell when it would be filed.

In response, the NAB investigator, Malik Zubair, argued that they could not do so because they required the record present in Karachi, which could not be brought to the federal capital. 

When Azam Khan, the accountability court judge, asked about the whereabouts of another accused Shahid Islam, former PSO MD, the investigator replied that he was in hiding abroad.

The NAB requested the court to declare the former PSO MD an absconder and give more time for filing the reference.

Accepting the plea, the accountability court ordered NAB to file the reference by June 11 and adjourned the hearing till then.

Earlier in March, the NAB had decided to file a supplementary reference in the LNG terminal case and sought time from the accountability court.

It is in addition to the earlier reference filed in December last year against Abbasi and nine others.

Later, talking to media after appearing before the accountability court in LNG case, senior PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi demanded that the NAB investigation and hearing of cases in accountability courts should be held live on camera. “We present our case before the people, he added.

The NAB has destroyed the country and the current government is most tired of that, he told reporters, adding that they had been calling for amending the NAB laws from day one.

Abbasi said the government had been presenting different excuses. “Faces are checked here, not the cases. The government’s faces too will now be seen here,” he remarked.

However, Abbasi added that they (PML-N) were ready to face [the cases and consequences] but they [the government] won’t be able to do so.

He said two years had passed but NAB was still unable to file a reference against him, adding that they still did not know what case they were facing.

About the latest situation, the former prime minister said the coronavirus had destroyed the country but the Centre was busy in fighting with the provinces.

The prime minister’s job was to get the country together but he divided everyone, he maintained.

When asked about the PML-N affairs, he said Shehbaz Sharif was the party president who had every right to fly abroad.

There was certainly differences of opinion but there were no differences in the party, Abbasi noted.