Ahsan Iqbal approaches NAB for reference against PM

ISLAMABAD: The PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal Tuesday moved the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference against Prime Minister Imran Khan for alleged withholding funds and misuse of authority through wilful default and criminal breach of trust on political grounds causing a loss of billions of rupees to national exchequer for sabotaging the National Sports City Narowal Project.

In his application to the NAB Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal, Ahsan Iqbal accused Imran Khan for misuse of authority to sabotage national sports project. He asked the Nab chairman toregister a case against Imran Khan and his alleged accomplices for wilful loss to the national project and they should be made personally liable for any cost escalation in respect of completing the project.

“I had filed a reference to the NAB chairman against the prime minister and his accomplices for misuse of authority,” he said while talking to media persons after submitting the reference. In his application submitted to the NAB chairman, Ahsan Iqbal stated that he was accused for misuse of authority in National Sports City Narowal Project, which is Pakistan’s first of its kind residential and integrated sports training and playing complex.

He said the project started in 2009 when he didn’t hold any executive office, while in 2013 this project was lying incomplete and work was resumed on the project with the approval of the competent fora. “I feel that I didn’t commit any crime by supporting a landmark sports infrastructure project for our young sporting talent to be trained on world class facilities of which there is great dearth in the country,” he stated in his application.

Ahsan Iqbal said the real crime is to sabotage the most important project of the sports development in the country by stopping release of remaining funds and work at the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“For last two years, the project has been abandoned with major damages to the facilities already constructed. Astroturf and athletic field track imported worth millions of rupees were not installed in time and have been wasted lying in creates as warranty by supplier was allowed to expire,” he alleged.

He said release of the remaining Rs400 million to complete the project, from total approved cost of Rs 2.9 billion, of which 86 percent funds have been spent, was withheld causing work to stop and contractors to demobilise. “Now additional billions of rupees will have to be spent in remobilisation claims and cost escalation heads in order to complete this project,” he said.

Ahsan Iqbal said he was arrested in fake and fabricated case on the wish of the government. He said the NAB has accepted that there was no corruption allegation against him, but only allegation of misuse of power.

He said PCB ex-chairman Najam Sethi had promised to hold PSL matches in Narowal Sports Project in 2020 but the government withheld the funds and stopped the work on the project. The PML-N leader went on to say that Peshawar’s BRT project was the biggest corruption scandal of the incumbent government.