ISLAMABAD  -  The Accountability Court Islamabad has released the detailed court order in which Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and 13 co-accused were exonerated from a 2019 LNG, NAB reference. All the accused in the reference were exonerated on April 30th after NAB withdrew the LNG reference and recommended the Accountability Court Judge to discharge all the accused from the reference.

The order states that charges were framed against 12 accused on November 16th, 2020, and the remaining three accused were declared proclaimed offenders in the case. The prosecution has recorded statements from 11 witnesses out of a total of 118 witnesses. Abdul Samad Dawood, Hussain Dawood, and Sheikh Ikram ul Haq submitted separate applications to withdraw their names from the reference on which matter was referred to NAB Rawalpindi for review / re-investigation and NAB Rawalpindi region in its report mostly agreed with the applicants that no loss to national exchequer, no misuse of authority or illegal monitory gain/gratification could be established.

The report from the region was then sent to Chairman NAB who referred the report to the High powered committee for re-examination. The high-powered committee endorsed the report of the region after which Chairman NAB exercising his power under National Accountability Ordinance 31 B (2) recommended the Accountability Court for withdrawal of reference, according to the detailed judgment. The court also ordered to discharge bail bonds of the accused.