The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday acquitted PML-N leader and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal in the Narowal Sports City (NSC) reference.
A two-member bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah delivered the verdict on an acquittal plea filed by Iqbal.
In the reference filed in November 2020, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had accused Iqbal of misusing authority by funding a provincial government project — Narowal Sports City — in his constituency and illegally increasing its scope from Rs34.75 million to Rs3 billion.
The project valuing Rs34.74m was approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) when Iqbal headed it as the planning minister.
However, it was shelved by the Pakistan Sports Board in 1999 on the directives of the planning ministry, which declared it “without requisite weightage with respect to economic necessity”.
