• Opposition cries foul over NAB action

• Miftah granted bail in LNG case

• Another PML-N lawmaker grilled

ISLAMABAD: As senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal was taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau on Monday in a case pertaining to Narowal Sports City Project, another PML-N leader Dr Miftah Ismail secured bail in a NAB reference after remaining behind bars for five months.

The arrest of the main opposition party’s secretary general who is also a member of the National Assembly drew criticism from the opposition parties that described the move as part of the ‘collusion’ between NAB and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The bureau claimed to have already informed NA Speaker Asad Qaiser about the arrest of the PML-N lawmaker who it said would be produced before the accountability court of Islamabad on Tuesday (today) to seek his physical remand. A team of doctors conducted his medical assessment after his arrest, the NAB added.

Just before his arrest, the former planning and development minister at a press conference outside the NAB headquarters criticised what he termed ‘NAB-PTI nexus’. While pleading innocence in the NSCP case, he alleged that the government was using institutions for arm-twisting of the opposition.

Talking to Dawn, a senior NAB official said people would come to know about Mr Iqbal’s involvement in corruption when evidence against him would be presented in the court on Tuesday.

According to the bureau, Mr Iqbal had initiated the Narowal sports complex project in his hometown near the Pakistan-India border and allowed escalation in its cost from Rs750 million to Rs2.5 billion by “misusing” his office of planning and development minister.

Earlier, Mr Iqbal told the press conference that he had filed documents related to his income and expenses to NAB’s Rawalpindi office and also replied to a questionnaire given to him by the bureau in connection with the case.

He said the project was launched in 2009, while his party came to power in 2013. Being minister for development, he said he had taken up several incomplete projects including Narowal Sports City Project. He said the project cost exceeded its original cost as the project was revived and its scope was revised to meet international standards. He said the project was executed away from main city areas as per international practice. The funds spent on it were approved by cabinet, parliament and the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, he said, adding that 90pc work on the project had been completed before the PTI came to power and suspended the work.

Mr Iqbal said the AstroTurf (artificial grass) imported for the sports ground was to be laid within six months but the PTI government stalled the work, turning the imported grass into ruins.

PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, who is in London to look after his ailing brother, condemned Mr Iqbal’s arrest and termed it yet another “proof of NAB-Niazi [PM] nexus”. He said Mr Iqbal had strengthened Pak-China friendship and CPEC, completed the incomplete projects and exposed the PTI government’s “anti-CPEC, anti-Pakistan and anti-public policies”.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said her party would continue to expose the government “misdeeds”. She said NAB had closed its eyes on PTI’s project of Bus Rapid Transport [BRT] that had been lying in the doldrums. “If anyone has misused authority, it is Imran Khan,” she remarked.

Also condemning Mr Iqbal’s arrest, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said both NAB and the ruling party were hand in gloves to target the opposition.

Miftah granted bail

Former finance minister Dr Miftah Ismail, who had been detained by NAB in August, was granted bail on Monday after the investigating officer in the LNG case admitted before the court that he had never visited the jail over the past five months to interrogate the PML-N leader about the Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) generated by the Financial Management Unit.

A division bench of the Islamabad High Court comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb granted the post-arrest bail against Rs10 million surety bonds.

The counsel for the former minister said ex-managing director of Pakistan State Oil Sheikh Imranul Haq, who had been facing identical allegations, had already been granted post-arrest bail in the case.

According to NAB, Dr Ismail had appointed a consultant in violation of the Pakistan Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules and awarded a contract for an LNG terminal without completing the tender process.

The additional prosecutor general of NAB, Jahanzeb Khan Bharwana argued that the bureau intended to investigate Mr Ismail about the STRs in order to file a supplementary reference against him. However, when the court asked him how many times he had visited the Adiala jail to interrogate Dr Ismail about the STRs, he replied that he did not visit the jail once for the purpose. “His custody could be regulated through a number of other ways,” Justice Minallah observed.

The judge said the accused could be tracked through electronic tagging, as he could not leave the country with his name being on the Exit Control List (ECL).

When Bharwana insisted that NAB might require him frequently for the investigation, Justice Minallah in a lighter vein remarked that the court might direct the accused to telephone the IO on a daily basis.

When the prosecutor argued that NAB Ordinance, 1999, gave him “unfettered powers to issue arrest warrants”, Justice Minallah responded that there were no “unfettered powers as the judiciary can review NAB’s power of arrest”.

Meanwhile, the IHC bench granted pre-arrest interim bail to former provincial minister and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sharjeel Inam Memon in connection with Roshan Sindh Project’s investigations by NAB.

The court granted the interim bail against the surety bond of Rs500,000 and adjourned the hearing till Jan 1, 2020.

Lawmaker grilled

In Lahore, a joint investigation team of NAB on Monday quizzed Javed Latif, a member of the National Assembly belonging to the main opposition party, for more than two hours during investigations into allegations of money laundering and assets beyond his known sources of income.

According to NAB, Mr Latif acquired assets worth billions of rupees in the name of his siblings after coming into politics.

The lawmaker representing Sheikhupura district reportedly told the investigators that all his assets were declared in his tax returns and the Anti-Corruption Establishment after carrying out a thorough inquiry had cleared him of the allegations.

Separately, Mr Latif, his four brothers and a son also filed a petition in the Lahore High Court to challenge NAB’s ‘politically motivated’ investigation against them. Claiming that all their property had been declared, they requested the court to stop NAB from holding the “investigations”.

Zulqernain Tahir from Lahore also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2019