Pakistan's former interior minister and senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal was arrested on Monday for alleged corruption in a sports complex construction project, according to a media report.
Iqbal, 60, was arrested from the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Rawalpindi office, where he had appeared to record his statement in the alleged corruption in the Narowal Sports City Project, the Dawn reported.
The NAB will produce him before an accountability court on Tuesday for his physical remand. He served as interior minister from August 2017 to May 2018.
Iqbal, who also served as planning and development minister and the deputy chairman of the planning commission, is charged with illegally using federal government funds meant for the sports city in Narowal under the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), the daily reported.
He has already submitted documents related to his income and expenditure to the NAB, according to the report.
Before entering the NAB office on Monday, Iqbal told the media that when he was the planning minister in the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led government, several projects were incomplete, including the sports city.
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He said the amount of money spent on the NSC had exceeded its original cost.
Reacting to Iqbal's arrest, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said there was a "NAB-Niazi nexus", referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan's role in the anti-corruption watchdog's action.
"The arrest of a man who strengthened Pak-China friendship and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is condemnable and regrettable," Sharif said.