IHC acquits Iqbal in Narowal Sports City reference
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday tossed out the Narowal Sports Complex reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), acquitting Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal of all charges.
A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah and including Justice Suman Rifat Imtiaz, heard Iqbal’s acquittal appeal.
The court raised several questions about the conduct of the country’s premier graft buster.
During the hearing, the bench repeatedly asked NAB investigator and prosecutor about the corruption allegations levelled against Iqbal. In response, the prosecutor requested adjournment of the case and sought time.
However, the court declined the request for adjournment, saying that NAB had failed to provide evidence even on one corruption allegation. The court then asked NAB why Iqbal was booked in the case when there was no evidence against him.
To a court query, the NAB investigation officer admitted that the cost of the project rose because of delays in its work during the 1999 to 2009 period when the country was under martial law of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
The IHC chief justice asked the IO why those people were not arrested. “Who would pay for the losses caused to the national kitty because of the delay in the work on the project because of the NAB reference?”
Chief Justice Minallah also raised the question about the overall conduct of NAB, adding that a competent officer like Ahad Cheema was imprisoned for three years, while a case was made against Iqbal on the basis of an obscure newspaper report.
He remarked that NAB claimed that the Narowal Sports City project was located near the border but where was corruption in it. In this case, he added, NAB misused its authority by forcing a secretary-level officer to become an approver.
The chief justice remarked that would NAB arrest all the members of the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Central Working Party (CWP) as they had approved the project.
CJ Minallah said that the NAB investigator did not even know the working of those forums where the project was approved.
He added that NAB’s job was to check corruption and not to interfere in policy matters, but it left corruption and went into another direction.
The IO said that Iqbal allocated 90% of the sports budget of entire Pakistan to this one project.
The chief justice asked whether the funds went into the pocket of the accused or the IO had an objection to the spending of funds on the people of Narowal.
“It is not for NAB to decide which fund will be used where,” the chief justice said, adding that it was a project of public interest and NAB itself was responsible for the increase in its cost.
He said if the increase in cost was corruption in the eyes of NAB, then NAB should be tried.
While acquitting Iqbal, the chief justice remarked that the Supreme Court had mentioned political engineering in its decision in 2020 and this was a classic case of it.