IHC acquits Ahsan Iqbal in Narowal Sports City Complex reference.

ISLAMABAD -- An Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench on Wednesday acquitted Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal in the Narowal Sports City Complex reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Saman Raffat Imtiaz announced the verdict after detailed arguments were presented by the two sides.

At the outset of hearing, the chief justice observed that the court would not delay the proceedings further and asked the NAB officials to point out corruption in the project. The then NAB chairman had based the reference on the news item of an unknown newspaper.

The project was approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and NAB prepared the reference without taking the CDWP's approval into account, he added.

The court asked the NAB officials how the accused had misused his powers while he was not a minister for inter-provincial coordination in 2009. It was not NAB's authority to determine the policy for any project. It was also not its job to determine whether Narowal was a big city or small and what kind of projects should be initiated there, he added.

Chief Justice Minallah said NAB officials did not know how a government work. Who was responsible for the loss occurred due to the stoppage of work on a public project, he questioned.

He said the CDWP comprised 30 members and whether all of them had committed corruption in the project. NAB had itself admitted that the delay in the project work had caused loss to the national exchequer.

The chief justice remarked that the court had repeatedly asked the NAB investigation officer about corruption in the project, but received no answer. It was how the reputation of people was damaged by the Bureau, he observed.

He remarked that a competent officer Ahad Cheema had been kept in jail for three years.

The court asked whether NAB had prepared a case against the official who caused loss by stopping the...