ISLAMABAD: The former Director General Pakistan Sports Board, Dr. Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera and two other officials of the sports board have been arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for their alleged involvement in massive financial embezzlement in the Narowal Sports City project.

The Narowal Sports City is a multi-billion rupee project which was the brain child of former planning and interior minister Ahsan Iqbal for his home constituency.

The FIA, which was probing the case for the last several months, in a dramatic move arrested the former DG PSB Dr. Ganjera from Islamabad on Wednesday besides two other officials - engineer Sarfraz Rasool and Ijaz Akbar - who are all in custody of FIA Gujranwala.

Reliable sources told Dawn that the FIA officials invited Ganjera and his two aides for lunch at a hotel in Islamabad and soon afterwards arrested them. However, Ijaz managed to flee from the scene but surrendered later on.

The former DG PSB is accused of favouring certain contractors who used substandard material in the project worth rupees three million. Besides, Ganjera himself as the project director is accused of misusing funds and his authority.

Sources said that the FIA has substantial evidence to prove the corruption of former DG PSB and other officials in the Narowal City case. According to some TV reports, there are chances that FIA will also investigate former minster for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada and former minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal who were closely involved.

In May this year, the National Accountability Bureau also initiated probe against then minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal for his alleged involvement in irregularities committed in the sports city project.

The official press release of the NAB released in May had stated that chairman NAB retired Justice Javed Iqbal, had ordered the bureau to verify the complaints against the alleged misappropriation of government funds — a staggering six billion rupees — in the construction of the Narowal Sports City Project (NSCP).

The bureau elaborated that the chairman had taken notice of the matter as rules were violated in the construction of the project and there was also the additional issue of security concerns.

The case is intriguing because a special allocation was made in the Public-Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the project. The funds allocated were then spent through the Sports Board of Pakistan (PSB), even though after the 18th constitutional amendment, the ministry of sports has devolved — it is now a provincial subject.

According to the PSDP 2018-19 report, the cost of the project was Rs 2.9 billion. Just over Rs 2.5 billion has already been spent while the remaining Rs 467 million have been apportioned for the upcoming fiscal year.

One of the major objections against the project was if it was really necessary to build such a huge sports city in a small town like Narowal, when the same funds could have been used to build a similar facility in a bigger city like Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018