Ahsan Iqbal arrested in Narowal Sports City corruption case

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz central leader and former planning minister, Ahsan Iqbal, has been arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in alleged corruption in Narowal Sports City project, ARY News reported on Monday.

Sources said that Ahsan Iqbal will be produced before the accountability court on Tuesday (tomorrow), whereas, the anti-corruption watch wrote a letter to the concerned authorities for undergoing medical tests of the arrested politician.

The arrest was made when Iqbal appeared before the anti-graft watchdog investigators in Rawalpindi.

Earlier in the day, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) summoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal in connection with a probe into the multi-billion Narowal Sports City Project case.

It is pertinent to mention here that he was summoned for the second time in two months.

Read: NAB makes progress in corruption case against PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal

Ahsan Iqbal is accused of using funds of the federal government and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for a sports city in Narowal. He had already filed a reply to a questionnaire given to him by the bureau previously.

Sources said the NAB Rawalpindi chapter has already received a complete record of the Narowal Sports City project to investigate alleged financial irregularities, which multiplied the estimated construction cost of Rs300 million to Rs3 billion.

Last year, NAB had announced to initiate a probe into alleged violation of rules in the construction of the National Sports City project –  a day after its inauguration by the then President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain.

The anti-graft watchdog in a statement said it had received a complaint that the Narowal Sports City was constructed at a cost of approximately Rs6 billion, which is a violation of rules and had resulted in heavy losses to the national exchequer.