Narowal Sports City Complex Project: NAB seeks more time for filing reference against Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday sought more time from the Accountability Court for filing a reference with respect to Narowal Sports City Complex Project (NSCCP) scam against the former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal.

The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing the case, asked the NAB to submit a detail report before it, to explain, why it had so far not filed a reference in the NSCCP scam.

At the start of the hearing, the NAB prosecutor sought more time from the court for filing the reference, and told the court that the bureau had called witnesses of the case for recording their statements but they did not appear before it due to the coronavirus. At this, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, Iqbal, came to rostrum, and said that if the NAB did not have any witnesses, then why he was detained for two months.

At the end of the hearing, the judge said, "This cannot be allowed to happen," and directed the NAB to submit a detailed report explaining what difficulties it faced in filing the reference. The court adjourned the hearing of the case till July 20th.

Iqbal, while talking to reporters after appearing before the court, said that the construction of the NSCCP was being considered a crime but embezzlement of Rs300 billion of sugar was apparently being considered nothing. Without naming the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, Jahangir Khan Tareen, he said that those who committed embezzlement in the recent sugar crises were sitting in London. How the price of sugar increased from Rs 53 to Rs 90 per kg? The PML-N leader questioned. He asked who took the money out of the pockets of the public.

Iqbal said that the present government had labelled the entire sugar industry "thieves" just so as to protect the prime suspects of the sugar crises, the sugar thieves. He also said that the government had tasked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to follow them, and the FIA had now become "NAB-II".

About health of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he said, that Sharif's health was now improving. "Sharif needs heart procedure but it is delayed due to the current coronavirus situation."

"As soon as coronavirus spread comes under control, Sharif will undergo a heart procedure," the PML-N leader said.

Iqbal said that the time had come to end the "incompetent government". "The incumbent government has destroyed the country's economy during its two years," he blamed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020