ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, on Monday, said that his party will not accept extension of Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice Javed Iqbal (retd), whose four-year term is going to end on October 8, through ordinance and will challenge it.
Talking to media after appearing before court in the Narowal Sport City Complex Project (NSCCP) case against him and others, he said that one month was left in the tenure of the chairman NAB but the government had yet not started consultation with the opposition for appointment of the new chairman.
"It has come to his knowledge that another ordinance would be issued from the ordinance factory of president for extension of the chairman NAB," he said, adding the PML-N would not accept extension of chairman NAB through ordinance.
To another question, he said the government had proved that it could not do inclusive governance as it could not hold consultation with opposition parties over appointment of the chairman NAB and appointment of members of the ECP and on some other issues.
The government, which is advising Taliban to form an inclusive government in its own country, wanted to do politics of polarisation and revenge and was not ready to hold inclusive elections in their own country, he said.
About his case, he said the NAB chairman had made a fake and false case against him to get extension.
He said the NAB had started the NSCCP scam inquiry against him in which it was alleged that Rs6 billion had been wasted on a sport project located at a distance of 800 meters from the border.
According to official figures, only Rs2.5 billion have been spent on the NSCCP project.
"The only allegation leveled against me in the reference is as to why I made efforts for completion of this project. The NAB has made this "bogus reference" against me just for my character assassination," he said.
"If I committed a crime by releasing fund for a provincial project then federal minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has also included projects of her own constituency in the current Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP)," he said.
He alleged that chairman NAB is only making corruption cases against civilian and politicians.
"You can only make fake cases," he said without naming NAB chairman.
He said the chairman NAB was making false cases against opposition leadership on the direction of the government.
Earlier, he appeared before Accountability Court-III judge Syed Asghar Ali in the NSCCP case.
NAB prosecutor, Waseem Javed, and witness Azhar Ahmed appeared before the court.
The court marked the attendance of Iqbal and allowed him to leave.
The witness, while recording his statement before the court, produced various documents before the court regarding the case.
The documents produced by the witness includes letter dated April 17, 2018 issued by the district coordination officer, Narowal regarding construction of sports stadium at Narowal, issued by Abdul Bashir section officer to Director General (DG) Pakistan Sport Board (PSB) regarding construction of Sport Complex in Narowal and copy of letter issued by Asif Khan, assistant chief regarding minutes of the CDWP meeting.
The court partially recorded statement of the witness and summoned him during the next hearing to be held on September 21 to complete his statement.