Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal has been acquitted by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the Narowal Sports City Reference filed against him.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal had filed an acquittal plea which was heard on Wednesday by a two-member IHC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Athar Minallah, who then delivered the verdict that Iqbal had been acquitted.
Timeline of case
Ahsan Iqbal was heading the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) as the planning minister in 1997, and the Narowal Sports City project was approved with an initial funding of Rs. 34.74 million. The project would see the construction of a sports complex in Narowal, which was Iqbal's constituency. However, after the coup d'etat in 1999, the planning ministry shelved the project, stating that it lacked the 'requisite weightage with respect to economic necessity'.
In 2009 the project was relaunched, this time with an approved budget of Rs 732 million. However, in 2011, after the introduction of the 18th amendment, the project was devolved to the Punjab government. In May 2018, NAB launched a probe into Ahsan Iqbal's involvement in the project, stating in a press release that there were reports of financial irregularities and misuse of a staggering Rs 6 billion in government funds. In October 2018, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested former Director General Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Dr. Ganjera as well as two other PSB officials - engineer Sarfraz Rasool and Ijaz Akbar from Islamabad.
Ahsan Iqbal was formally arrested in December 2019 while he was present at NAB's office in Rawalpindi to record his statement on the Narowal Sports City case. The anti-corruption watchdog accused him of using the federal government's funds for a provincial project, and accused him of large-scale embezzlement. He remained in NAB's custody for two months.
The IHC filed a reference against Iqbal in November 2020, accusing him of misusing government funds for a provincial project in his own constituency, and also increasing the scope of the project from Rs34.75 million to Rs3 billion. In February 2022, the NAB had dismissed Iqbal's plea for the reference against him to be quashed, after which the PML-N leader moved the IHC in April 2022 to seek acquittal in what he termed 'a case of political victimization' against him. He said that Article 164 of the Constitution allowed the federal government to fund provincial projects, and said that he had obtained all the required approvals.
Acquittal hearing today
In the hearing today, the court rejected NAB's request to adjourn the case as its Additional Prosecutor General Jahanzeb Khan Bharwana was absent from the hearing. The court grilled the NAB investigator and asked him to highlight where the corruption had taken place. Justice Minallah asked why the NAB had filed a reference on the report of an unknown newspaper, without bothering to investigate it first.
“The [NAB] chairman started the proceedings [based on the news] from an unknown newspaper. What is a CDWP (Central Development Working Party)? You have filed the reference without knowing what CDWP is,” Justice Minallah said.
The investigator said that the additional prosecutor general was supposed to present his arguments, but he was not present today, however Justice Minallah maintained that the hearing will not be adjourned. He asked the investigator why the costs of the Narowal Sports City project rose if NAB had shut it down, to which the investigator replied that NAB had not stopped the project.
The court then asked who the planning minister was at the time the project was reinitiated, to which the investigator said that it was Ahsan Iqbal. “So what authority did Ahsan Iqbal have that was misused?” Justice Minallah asked. “You have no idea how the government works. Please tell me any one allegation of corruption in it. If you talk about losses then [it was] you who stopped this project and caused a loss,” he said.
Subsequently, the court dismissed the case against Ahsan Iqbal, acquitting him.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal had filed an acquittal plea which was heard on Wednesday by a two-member IHC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Athar Minallah, who then delivered the verdict that Iqbal had been acquitted.
Timeline of case
Ahsan Iqbal was heading the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) as the planning minister in 1997, and the Narowal Sports City project was approved with an initial funding of Rs. 34.74 million. The project would see the construction of a sports complex in Narowal, which was Iqbal's constituency. However, after the coup d'etat in 1999, the planning ministry shelved the project, stating that it lacked the 'requisite weightage with respect to economic necessity'.
In 2009 the project was relaunched, this time with an approved budget of Rs 732 million. However, in 2011, after the introduction of the 18th amendment, the project was devolved to the Punjab government. In May 2018, NAB launched a probe into Ahsan Iqbal's involvement in the project, stating in a press release that there were reports of financial irregularities and misuse of a staggering Rs 6 billion in government funds. In October 2018, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested former Director General Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Dr. Ganjera as well as two other PSB officials - engineer Sarfraz Rasool and Ijaz Akbar from Islamabad.
Ahsan Iqbal was formally arrested in December 2019 while he was present at NAB's office in Rawalpindi to record his statement on the Narowal Sports City case. The anti-corruption watchdog accused him of using the federal government's funds for a provincial project, and accused him of large-scale embezzlement. He remained in NAB's custody for two months.
The IHC filed a reference against Iqbal in November 2020, accusing him of misusing government funds for a provincial project in his own constituency, and also increasing the scope of the project from Rs34.75 million to Rs3 billion. In February 2022, the NAB had dismissed Iqbal's plea for the reference against him to be quashed, after which the PML-N leader moved the IHC in April 2022 to seek acquittal in what he termed 'a case of political victimization' against him. He said that Article 164 of the Constitution allowed the federal government to fund provincial projects, and said that he had obtained all the required approvals.
Acquittal hearing today
In the hearing today, the court rejected NAB's request to adjourn the case as its Additional Prosecutor General Jahanzeb Khan Bharwana was absent from the hearing. The court grilled the NAB investigator and asked him to highlight where the corruption had taken place. Justice Minallah asked why the NAB had filed a reference on the report of an unknown newspaper, without bothering to investigate it first.
“The [NAB] chairman started the proceedings [based on the news] from an unknown newspaper. What is a CDWP (Central Development Working Party)? You have filed the reference without knowing what CDWP is,” Justice Minallah said.
The investigator said that the additional prosecutor general was supposed to present his arguments, but he was not present today, however Justice Minallah maintained that the hearing will not be adjourned. He asked the investigator why the costs of the Narowal Sports City project rose if NAB had shut it down, to which the investigator replied that NAB had not stopped the project.
The court then asked who the planning minister was at the time the project was reinitiated, to which the investigator said that it was Ahsan Iqbal. “So what authority did Ahsan Iqbal have that was misused?” Justice Minallah asked. “You have no idea how the government works. Please tell me any one allegation of corruption in it. If you talk about losses then [it was] you who stopped this project and caused a loss,” he said.
Subsequently, the court dismissed the case against Ahsan Iqbal, acquitting him.