ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday sought a response from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a petition filed by PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal seeking acquittal in the Narowal sports complex case.
During the hearing, Iqbal moved the application, requesting judge Syed Asghar Ali to acquit him in the case for what he said was want of evidence.
Adjourning the hearing till February 23, the court directed the agency to file its response before the date.
Iqbal was arrested by NAB in December 2019. He remained in custody for over two months before securing bail from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in February 2020.
According to the NAB reference, Iqbal and others misused their authority, “illegally enhancing the scope of the project from Rs34.75 million to Rs3 billion”.
The project was conceived in 1999 on Iqbal’s directives “without any feasibility study,” it says.
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), headed by Iqbal, had initially approved the Narowal project at a cost of Rs34.74m in 1999. The same year on his “illegal” directive to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the National Engineering Service of Pakistan, the project’s scope was enhanced to Rs97.52 million.
Iqbal identified the land for the project and provided specific Khasra (plot) Nos. to the PSB to acquire the land, but the PSB on the directives of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms shelved the project in 1999 on the ground that it was not an economic necessity at the time.
Again launched in 2009, the project was approved at a cost of Rs732 million, but soon after the passage of the 18th Amendment, the project was devolved to the Punjab government in 2011.
According to NAB, when Iqbal took over the charge of minister for planning and development in 2013, he illegally directed officials of his ministry to include the Narowal project in the PSDP 2013-14, though it was not included in the draft PSDP 2013-14 as it was a devolved project and was also reflected in Annual Development Programme 2013-14 of the Punjab government.
