ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has reopened investigation against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills corruption case.
According to an official spokesperson of NAB, the decision of reopening the case against Dar was made in light of the verdict of the Supreme Court. The spokesperson said that Ishaq Dar, who was nominated as an accused in the initial reference, had later become an approver in the case.
However, since the reference has been quashed, the investigation against Dar, as an accused, is being restarted.
It is pertinent to mention here that Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, while distancing himself from a petition filed by NAB against the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) order of quashing Hudaibiya Papers Mills case against the Sharif family, had referred to his earlier verdict in Panama Papers case regarding the Hudaibiya reference.
In his April 20 judgement, Justice Khosa’s 192-page note had directed NAB to proceed against Dar in connection with the Hudaibiya reference case wherein he was not an accused when the said reference was quashed by the LHC, which also barred re-investigation and set aside Dar’s confessional statement.
The judge observed that there was an apparent flaw in the judgement as the reference to the LHC judge was on whether or not an observation could be made not regarding the re-investigation, and not as to whether re-investigation could be carried out. He also said that NAB did not challenge the LHC verdict before the SC.
He added that as a coincidence, Nawaz Sharif was prime minister at that time.
Justice Khosa said that the reference was quashed by the LHC because in the investigation, the Sharifs had not been associated and Dar’s confessional statement had been made before a magistrate and not before a trial court.
