Shahid Khaqan Abbasi approaches Islamabad court for protective bail

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking protective bail in an illegal appointment case against him. Barrister Zafarullah Khan has filed the petition on Abbasi’s behalf on Saturday. It says that an accountability court in Karachi issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the PML-N leader “without recourse to the fundamental rights of notice, hearing [and] due process of law guaranteed to all citizens of Pakistan under the Constitution”. Abbasi, who is currently out on bail in the LNG terminal case, has been accused of hiring people illegally while he was serving as the petroleum minister during PML-N’s tenure. NAB claimed that he illegally appointed Pakistan State Oil’s managing director and deputy managing director. Karachi’s accountability court issued non-bailable arrest warrants of the former PM on Friday and summoned him to appear in court on April 10.