‘Three former NAB chiefs can be jailed over Broadsheet issue’

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says that three former chiefs of the National Accountability Bureau can go to prison if justice is done in the Broadsheet case.

Abbasi said this while speaking to the media outside a Islamabad court Tuesday. He appeared before the court in the LNG terminal case.

UK-based firm Broadsheet LLC was hired in 2000 by General Pervez Musharraf’s government to recover assets stolen by the past Pakistani governments.

The contract expired in 2003 and the firm alleged it was not paid. It sued Pakistan in the London Court of International Arbitration in 2016 and won an award of $21 million in 2019. Islamabad appealed the decision in the London High Court and the award was increased to $33 million.

British authorities recently seized $28.7 million from the Pakistan High Commission’s account and the rest remains payable.

"This is just one case," the former premier said. "There are hundreds of such NAB cases."

He said these cases were just aimed at maligning political figures. "Three chairmen go to prison in the Broadsheet case, remand them too."

Abbasi noted that former military dictator Pervez Musharraf was also named in the case. There is no one to question a NAB prosecutor for testifying for Broadsheet LLC, he lamented.

"The prime minister must inform why his ministers kept asking for money from Broadsheet," the former premier demanded.

"Partners can never be arbitrators," he said on the appointment of former judge Azmat Saeed as the head of Broadsheet inquiry committee.