ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Wednesday adjourned the graft hearing against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar until October 23, after his senior member of legal counsel Khawaja Haris failed to appear for court proceedings.
As the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s made his sixth appearance in the accountability court of Judge Mohammad Bashir on Wednesday, a junior member of his legal counsel Advocate Momina requested the court to adjourn the hearing until next week owing to unavailability of Dar’s senior lawyer. The court was apprised that Harris is currently out of town.
“Khawaja Haris is not committed to this case,” the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor observed upon which Advocate Momina stated that the court could continue with Wednesday’s proceedings and Haris could cross-examine witnesses once he returned next week.
Responding to the comment, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) lawyer stated that the witnesses could only be cross-examined on the day they record their statements.
The judge directed the defence to confirm the date of Haris’s return following which the judge directed a 15 minutes recess.
The NAB prosecutor contended that Harris would appear if the suspect is placed behind bars.
The court is yet to take a decision on Dar’s legal team’s proposition.The judge then adjourned the proceedings until October 23.
During the Wednesdays’ proceedings, two more prosecution witnesses — Masood Ghani of Habib Bank and Abdul Rahman Gondal of Allied Bank – were to record their statements in the accountability court.
Monday’s hearing
The accountability court on Monday had adjourned the hearing of corruption reference filed against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar until October 18. As the hearing resumed at noon, Dar’s lawyer Khawaja Harris was only able to complete Tariq Javed’s cross-examination. The hearing had earlier in the morning gone into recess after the bench was informed about Dar’s counsel’s unavailability.
During Monday’s hearing, Javed submitted details of e-mails exchanged between the bank and National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which he was asked to present by the court in the hearing last week.
NAB’s fourth witness – Habib Bank Islamabad Manager Masood Ghani – was unable to record statement on Monday owing to lack of time.
As the hearing went underway, junior lawyer Kauseen Faisal Mufti’s pleaded before the bench to allow an exemption to Dar from future hearings. Mufti, in his client’s petition, stated that Dar wished to be exempted from court hearings in order to be able to focus on his engagement and duties as finance minister.
Subsequently, the bench turned down the exemption plea.
Harris, however, refiled the appeal for the finance minister’s exemption from the proceedings.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during an eight-hour long trial on October 12 hearing had presented two witnesses – Shahid Aziz of the National Investment Trust and Tariq Javed of the Al-Baraka Bank – before the Accountability Court to record their statements during hearing against Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar in the corruption reference.
The NAB in an earlier hearing had submitted a list of 28 witnesses with the court.
The accountability court had indicted Dar last month in a corruption reference pertaining to ownership of assets beyond known sources of income.
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