Daily Times

An accountability court in Islamabad has handed over Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on seven-day physical remand in Narowal Sports City corruption case.

The accountability court resumed the hearing of Narowal Sports City corruption case where Ahsan Iqbal was produced before the judge Azam Khan in court room 2.

NAB prosecutor told the court that the feasibility study of the project had not been submitted which highlighted ill-will of the persons responsible to run the development work of the project. He added the federal government has no powers over any project run by provincial authorities after the implementation of 18th Constitutional Amendment.

The prosecutor said the court had handed seven-day physical remand out of which two days were spent in the session of the National Assembly. The institution also wanted to interrogate Iqbal’s employment on Iqama, as well as the scrutiny of documents needs more time.

He said the misusage of power came under the category of corruption and corrupt practices. The NAB investigators extracted details from the records in 18 days of time but it need more time to scrutnise more documents, said the prosecutor, adding that it is an important case but not a simple murder or dacoity case as the investigators have a list of witnesses against him.

The court was pleaded by the prosecutor to approve Iqbal’s 14-day physical remand. After conclusion of the arguments by NAB prosecutor, the lawmaker’s counsel Barrister Zafarullah opposed the extension of physical remand of Ahsan Iqbal.

Zafarullah said the project had been passed by 20 members then the reason must be given for arresting only Ahsan Iqbal. He continued that if the 18th amendment restricts the federal government to intervene into any project run by the provincial authorities than which law allows it to construct two dams.

He elaborated that the 18th amendment had only transferred legislation powers to the provinces. The counsel briefed that his client was being summoned in the case by NAB since the last 1.5 years and he has always submitted his response.

Iqbal possesses the particulars of the projects, whereas, the NAB prosecutor has failed brought any solid evidence in the case except repeating the previous allegations.

He elaborated that the then secretaries of all four provinces were present during the approval of the project including the current AJK prime minister and members of planning divisions. The counsel said if the expenditures of a project are increased than it cannot be considered as a crime until it went into someone’s pocket.

After conclusion of the arguments from both sides, the court approved seven-day extension in physical remand of Ahsan Iqbal and adjourned the hearing till January 20.

NAB sources had earlier said that the former planning minister is facing charges of misusing powers as he had illegally increased the construction cost of the sports city project from Rs300 million to Rs1000 million as per the records scrutinised by the accountability bureau.