ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday accepted federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal’s petition challenging the Accountability Court’s verdict that rejected his petition for acquittal in a reference, and exonerated him from corruption charges.
A division bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz heard the petition moved by the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) leader.
During the hearing, Ahsan’s counsel argued that the reference was based on allegations and contrary to facts and requested the court to declare the accountability court’s verdict as null and void.
The IHC chief justice observed that the case was a classic example of political engineering and the NAB damaged the project by halting it for so many years. The judge asked the NAB prosecutor if it was the NAB’s responsibility to keep a check on the government.
Justice Minallah said the NAB filed a reference based on a news item published in some unknown newspaper and asked that did the NAB even know what the allegations mentioned in the news item were.
The court questioned if all the 30 people working in the CDWP were involved in corruption and if yes, then why only Ahsan Iqbal was arrested? The NAB asserted that Iqbal illegally directed the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and NESPAK to increase the project’s scope, enhancing the cost to Rs97.52 million.
The prosecutor then informed that the project was a provincial matter after the 18th Amendment and it was then transferred to the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (MIPC). The court asked was Ahsan Iqbal heading the MIPC. To this, the NAB prosecutor said that Iqbal was the minister for planning. Then what authority Ahsan Iqbal misused, the bench asked.
Justice Minallah remarked that you have no clue how the government works. He added that tell the court of a single corruption allegation in all this. He continued that if you talk of losses then it is you who caused them by stopping the project and by this logic, you should have filed a case against yourself.
The NAB prosecutor urged the court to grant some time to review the reference in light of the recent amendments to the NAB laws. He added that the NAB additional prosecutor general would present arguments if they were given more time.
The IHC CJ remarked that they have already given more than enough time to the NAB and ordered to acquit Ahsan Iqbal in this matter.
In his appeal, the PML-N leader challenged the dismissal of his acquittal plea by the accountability court in the Narowal Sports City Complex reference.
Ahsan Iqbal, in his petition, stated that Article 164 of the Constitution authorized the federal government to release funds for a provincial project. The Narowal Sports City Complex project was initiated with the approval of the federal cabinet, he added. He said the NAB reference was based on fabricated allegations and was against the facts.
He informed the court that in November 2020, the chairman National Accountability Bureau, Islamabad, filed the NAB reference before the Accountability Court No III, Islamabad, pursuant to which the petitioner was charged by the Accountability Court under Section 9(a) (vi)(xii) and Schedule 5 (the “Charge Sheet”) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (the “NA0,1999”).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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