ISLAMABAD: An accountability court of Islamabad on Wednesday gave former chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) Farkhand Iqbal into National Accountability Bureau custody on six days physical remand.

He was arrested on July 27 in a case related to the allotment of 118 kanals to Park Lane - a private firm ‘owned’ by former President Asif Ali Zardari.

National Accountability Court on July 27 arrested Iqbal for misusing authority to allot the land to the private firm. NAB’s prosecution produced him before the accountability court judge Mohammad Bashir and sought his 14 days physical remand.

The court, however, granted six days remand only.

Farkhand Iqbal said before the judge that he never misused his authority. He said in fact the deputy commissioner had approved the allotment of land and he had challenged the approval before a competent court.

“Since I was not in a position to do more, therefore, I could only approach the court against the order of deputy commissioner,” he said.

He claimed his innocence and said that NAB arrested him without any cogent reason.

Iqbal told the judge that he was suffering from prostate cancer and blood pressure, his cousin has already died of this disease adding that he was being given substandard food which may be hazardous to his health.

He requested the court to permit him to eat homemade food and to get medical checkup. The judge accepted his request and issued the order accordingly.

He directed NAB to produce Iqbal before the court on Aug 3.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2021