ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday urged Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to resign from his position after the accountability court on Wednesday issued bailable arrest warrants for the latter in a corruption reference.
The demand was made at a committee meeting chaired by Pakistan People’s Party Senator Saleem Mandviwalla.
The participants of the meeting were of the opinion that a minister whose house has been raided by the anti-graft watchdog should no longer hold a public position.
Two other members of the committee — Senator Fateh Mohammad Hassani and Mohsin Aziz — endorsed Mandviwalla’s view that Dar should act responsibly and quit public office.
Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore office ordered all concerned departments and banks to freeze Dar’s accounts as well as any moveable or immovable assets that he owns in Pakistan.
According to a notification, Dar, “or any of his relatives and associates, or any other person on his behalf shall not transfer any property owned by [Dar] or in his possession”.
According to NAB sources, a team from its Lahore office also raided Dar’s residence in Islamabad’s Ministers Enclave on Wednesday evening and interrogated his domestic servants.
However, NAB denied these reports, saying they had only gone to the minister’s house to deliver the court’s notice.
The officials had the employees sign a receiving of the arrest orders and compliance summons, and then searched the house to make sure Dar was not present there, sources informed.
