ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday claimed to have sufficient evidence against Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal to prove his guilt in Narowal Sports City (NSC) case and requested the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to dismiss his acquittal petition accordingly.

The plea was made by NAB when an IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz resumed hearing on Iqbal’s petition seeking his acquittal in the NSC reference.

The reference accused Iqbal of misusing authority and illegally enhancing the scope of the project from Rs732 million to Rs3 billion.

According to the prosecution, the project of the Narowal Sports City, formerly known as Sports Stadium Narowal, was initially conceived in 1999 on the directives of Mr Iqbal “without any feasibility study”.

Claims to have sufficient evidence against minister to prove his guilt in Narowal Sports City case

The project was initially approved at a cost of Rs34.74 million by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) headed by Mr Iqbal. The same year, he “illegally” directed the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the National Engineering Service of Pakistan to enhance the scope of the project. Accordingly, the scope of the project was enhanced to the tune of Rs97.52 million.

As per the reply of NAB, after the 18th Constitution Amendment, 21 sports projects were transferred to Punjab government, 13 to Sindh government, eight to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and 10 sports projects were handed over to the government of Balochistan.

It said that none of the projects were funded by the federal government but Iqbal by misusing his authority transferred federal government’s funds in the NSC project situated in his constituency.

NAB stated that the petition of Mr Iqbal was misconceived and was abuse of process of law and the petitioner had no locus standi (right) to file the petition.

It stated: “Sufficient incriminating material is available on the record which connects the petitioner with the offences of corruption and corrupt practices, hence, the instant petition may be dismissed.”

During the course of hearing, NAB’s prosecutor told the court that in addition to filing of comments, the bureau intended to place on record some additional documents.

The prosecutor further informed the court that Iqbal has been indicted in this reference and three prosecution witnesses have testified before the trial court so far.

Justice Minallah observed that the IHC had already laid down guiding principles of filing references and supplementary references in the Nandipur reference.

He asked the prosecutor to justify the case in the light of above said judgement.

Mr Iqbal addressing the division bench said that he had offered NAB to prove any corruption in the NSC or in any other project. He said that NAB has misused its authority to malign the politicians.

Further hearing in this matter has been adjourned till May 11.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2022