ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday filed a reference against Ahsan Iqbal, former minister for planning, development and reforms and a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, in the Accountability Court of Islamabad.

The reference has been filed in connection with the Narowal Sports City (NSC) project in which Mr Iqbal has been accused of misuse of authority and “illegally enhancing the scope of project from Rs34.75 million to Rs3 billion”.

According to the NAB Rawalpindi region, 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”.

The project was initially approved at a cost of Rs34.74m by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) headed by Mr Iqbal. In 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 Rs97.52m.

Mr Iqbal personally identified land for the project and provided specific Khasra (plot) Nos. to the PSB to acquire the land he had identified.

The project was shelved in 1999 by the PSB on the directives of the ministry of planning, development and reforms on the ground that the project did not have the requisite weightage with respect to economic necessity.

The project was again launched in 2009 when it was approved at a cost of Rs732m. However, the project was devolved to the government of Punjab in 2011 after the introduction of 18th Amendment.

Mr Ahsan was arrested by NAB in December last year and remained in custody for two months. He has pleaded his innocence in the case, but NAB has accused him of launching the NSC project close to the Pak-India border area in Narowal, escalating its cost from Rs750m to Rs3bn by “misusing” his office when he was minister for planning and development in the last PML-N government.

About the case, Mr Iqbal had said that when the PML-N came to power in 2013, he, as the planning minister, took up several projects which remained incomplete and the sports city was one of such projects.

The funds spent on the project were approved by the cabinet, the parliament and the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, the PML-N leader had said.

According to NAB, when Mr Iqbal took over the charge of minister of planning and development in 2013, he illegally directed officials of his ministry to include the NSC project in the PSDP 2013-14 though it was not included in the draft PSDP 2013-14 as it was a devolved project and was also reflected in Annual Development Programme 2013-14 of Punjab government.

The NAB claimed that the former minister by misusing his authority had “hijacked” the provincial project in violation of 18th Amendment and the Council of Common Interests’ decision dated April 28, 2011 with ulterior motives and made huge wasteful expenditure from the federal government exchequer.

Moreover, by misusing his authority and without any justification, he also increased the cost of project from Rs730m to Rs3bn for personal political mileage, according to NAB.

The PML-N leader was also accused of diverting about 90 per cent of sports funds of the ministry of inter-provincial coordination to his constituency by misusing his position to cement his political position by depriving the whole country through blatant conflict of interest.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2020