<p>Pakistan's anti-graft body on Thursday arrested former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in a multi-billion-rupee case related to the award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract.</p>.<p>A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team intercepted Abbasi's car at Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore and arrested him. He initially resisted the arrest but eventually conceded.</p>.<p>Abbasi, who served as the prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018, had come here from Islamabad to hold a press conference but he was arrested before reaching the venue of the event.</p>.<p>The NAB was probing alleged corruption in the award of a contract to import LNG from Qatar by Abbasi when he was minister for petroleum and natural resources in the cabinet of former premier Nawaz Sharif.</p>.<p>Abbasi has denied the charges and said that he would prove his innocence in any court of law.</p>.<p>He would be presented before a NAB court to get remand for further investigation.</p>.<p>Earlier, NAB had summoned him on Thursday in the case but he skipped the appearance.</p>.<p>Prime Minister Imran Khan is in Lahore and opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) alleged that Abbasi has been arrested on his direct order.</p>.<p>"We strongly condemn this arrest as Imran Khan Niazi wants to put all opposition leaders in jail," PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said. He said there have been an unholy alliance between Imran Khan and the NAB.</p>.<p>"This is shameful victimization of opposition leaders by Niazi. Opposition cannot be intimidated through such fascist actions," he said.</p>.<p>The three-time prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is already serving seven years imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Mills case. Opposition Pakistan Peoples' Party's co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari is also in NAB's custody in fake bank accounts case. </p>
<p>Pakistan's anti-graft body on Thursday arrested former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in a multi-billion-rupee case related to the award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract.</p>.<p>A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team intercepted Abbasi's car at Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore and arrested him. He initially resisted the arrest but eventually conceded.</p>.<p>Abbasi, who served as the prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018, had come here from Islamabad to hold a press conference but he was arrested before reaching the venue of the event.</p>.<p>The NAB was probing alleged corruption in the award of a contract to import LNG from Qatar by Abbasi when he was minister for petroleum and natural resources in the cabinet of former premier Nawaz Sharif.</p>.<p>Abbasi has denied the charges and said that he would prove his innocence in any court of law.</p>.<p>He would be presented before a NAB court to get remand for further investigation.</p>.<p>Earlier, NAB had summoned him on Thursday in the case but he skipped the appearance.</p>.<p>Prime Minister Imran Khan is in Lahore and opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) alleged that Abbasi has been arrested on his direct order.</p>.<p>"We strongly condemn this arrest as Imran Khan Niazi wants to put all opposition leaders in jail," PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said. He said there have been an unholy alliance between Imran Khan and the NAB.</p>.<p>"This is shameful victimization of opposition leaders by Niazi. Opposition cannot be intimidated through such fascist actions," he said.</p>.<p>The three-time prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is already serving seven years imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Mills case. Opposition Pakistan Peoples' Party's co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari is also in NAB's custody in fake bank accounts case. </p>