Ahsan Iqbal, others indicted in sports city reference

Court records witness statement in LNG case against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court on Tuesday indicted all the accused in the Narowal Sports City Complex reference, including former federal minister Ahsan Iqbal, and summoned witnesses in the case on the next date of hearing.

Accountability Court Judge Syed Asghar Ali conducted the hearing. At the onset of the proceedings, Iqbal objected to the indictment, telling the court the judge should not listen to the prosecution only rather see for himself whether there was any merit in the case. However, the judge stopped Iqbal from addressing the court directory and let his lawyer speak.

Later, the court indicted Iqbal, former Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) director general Akhtar Nawaz Ganjira, Sarfraz Rasool, a government official, planning ministry officer Asif Sheikh and a private contractor Muhammad Ahmed. All the accused pleaded not guilty.

The court summoned witnesses and adjourned the case till January 12. Earlier, the Planning Ministry Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry had become approver in the case.

Separately, in another accountability court, Judge Muhammad Azam Khan conducted the hearing of the LNG reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others and recorded statement of witness.

Abbasi appeared before the court while an associate of the counsel for former finance minister Miftah Ismail filed for exemption from his attendance. The court was informed that Ismail’s counsel was out of the city.

The court ordered that the witness statement be recorded in the absence of Ismail’s lawyer. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) witness Hassan Bhatti, while recording his statement, presented documents which were made part of the record.

Following the completion of the witness statement, the court summoned the witness again for cross-examination on the next hearing and adjourned the hearing till January 7.

Also, Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir adjourned the proceedings of case of misuse of authority against former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and others over the absence of an accused. During the proceedings the court was informed that accused Basharat Hassan had contracted coronavirus.

The court adjourned the hearing till January 19. It may be recalled that the court was to indict the accused. The court has already declared Shaukat Aziz as an absconder in the case.

 

Meanwhile, talking to the media after the hearings, Abbasi and Iqbal, both the senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) accused the government of implicating them in false cases to put pressure on the opposition.

“I demand of the chief justice of Pakistan to issue an order for broadcasting the proceedings of thses political cases live on television, Iqbal told reporters. “Let the people know where Imran Khan Niazi’s accountability stands.”

The former interior minister said that government was wasting state resources on spreading lies. He accused the prime minister of using pressure tactics on the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to regularise the illegal construction of his Bani Gala residence.

“Imran Khan demolished the houses of hundreds of poor people by declaring them illegal. Action will be taken against the CDA officers who illegally regularised Imran Khan’s house,” he said. “Imran Khan used his office and his powers to regularise his house.

Talking to media outside the accountability court of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the NAB case had been going on for two and a half years. “It seems that our job is to face the case,” he added.

“Judge Arshad Malik’s case is before the whole world. False cases have been made against the opposition, but there is no case of the corruption of billions of rupees in sugar, wheat and LNG scandals,” Abbasi told reporters.