Lahore, Aug 1: A senior Pakistani opposition leader has alleged that former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi received kickbacks from an Indian company when he was serving as the federal petroleum minister in the cabinet of Premier Nawaz Sharif five years ago, media reports said on Monday.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill alleged that Abbasi took PKR 140 million as a bribe from an Indian firm as consultancy fees, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“Khaqan Abbasi received Rs140 million from an Indian company through telegraphic transfers when was serving as federal petroleum minister in 2017,” Pakistan Observer newspaper quoted him as saying, adding that he had receipts of all transactions made to Abbasi, now a senior vice-president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
The proceeds were transferred to Abbasi’s bank account in three transactions, one in December 2016 and two in January 2017, when he was the petroleum minister in the cabinet of Nawaz Sharif, the Dawn report said, quoting Gill.
Gill, the chief of staff to ousted prime minister Imran Khan, did not disclose the name of the Indian company.
Reacting to the allegations levelled against him, Abbasi, 63, said instead of dishing the dirt at him, the former ruling party should file a petition against him with concrete evidence.
Abbasi, who was prime minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018, said the PTI and its ‘character-assassination brigade’ remained in power for four years but they could not find anything concrete against him.
The PML-N leader said the former PTI government led by Khan had filed two fake cases against him.
Gill also dared the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader to make his accounts public.
“I am ready to make my bank details accounts public, and demand the same from Abbasi, so that the truth can prevail,” he added. (PTI)
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