Rawalpindi: The Awami Muslim League’s (AML) head and former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has affirmed of having no contact with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) founder Imran Khan and any other PTI member.

According to the details, Sheikh Rashid was talking to media outside the anti-terrorism court of Rawalpindi regarding the PTI.

He stated that PTI’s senator Shibli Faraz can say something regarding the table talks of PTI. There is no post of deputy prime minister in the constitution. The deputy prime minister is the constitution of Jati Omra.

AML’s head said that the next two months will be taking the country to economical destruction. The industrialist and investor were already crying amid the current situation of the country. The procurement of wheat did not start.

He also said that now the current situation is that no one is giving loan to Pakistan. Those people whose allegations have not proved should be released from jails. National accountability bureau (NAB) should take immediate notice of wheat scandal.

Lahore: The Punjab government could not decide on the proposals of giving subsidy to small farmers on wheat.

According to the media reports quoting Food department sources, only 120,000 farmers meet the Punjab government's wheat purchase policy and if subsidies are given to the farmers who meet the purchase policy, more than Rs5 billion will be spent.

It is also reported that the government is currently considering giving a subsidy of a few hundred rupees per maund to the farmers, but even giving the subsidy does not seem likely to end the farmers' protest.

According to food department, the Punjab government is ready to buy wheat with 10% moisture as per the policy, however, there is no wheat with 10% moisture in any district of Punjab and it is more than 16% due to rains.

The reports also told that the government has indicated the farmers to buy wheat for political point scoring, while the government has plenty of wheat for the next full year. Abundant wheat, moisture ratio and economic situation are obstacles in buying wheat.

On the other hand, farmers are also protesting for not buying wheat at the government level. Farmer leader Khalid Bath said that if the government does not buy wheat, the farmers will continue their protest.

Islamabad: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) withdrew the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) reference against former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

After NAB's reference was withdrawn, the accountability court acquitted all the accused, including former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Earlier, NAB had decided to withdraw the LNG reference against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

It is reported that the decision to end the reference by NAB has been taken on merit.

The request to remove the reference was made by the former head of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), added the report.

It is pertinent to note that NAB arrested Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the same case in 2019.

In the reference, NAB claimed to have caused a loss of 21 billion rupees to the national exchequer.

LNG Case

It is important to mention that in the NAB inquiry, it was revealed that the management of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) and Interstate Gas System had awarded the LNG terminal at Karachi Port to M/S Engro in a non-transparent manner.

Along with this, SSGCL awarded 15 contracts for regasification of LNG at a fixed price per day to a subsidiary of Engro.

Not only Shahid Khaqan but also former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was accused of misuse of powers by awarding LNG terminal contract to 15 different companies of his choice.

In 2016, during the rule of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), NAB closed the inquiry against Shahid in the regional board meeting held in Karachi.

Two inquiries were sanctioned against him. When he was the former Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, one of these inquiries into his alleged involvement in irregularities in LNG imports and the other was related to appointing the president Naeemuddin Khan in Bank of Punjab (BOP).

However, Abbasi said many times that he did not commit any irregularity in the contract given for the import of LNG and he can prove his innocence at every forum and that the LNG export in 2013 was an important need.