ISLAMABAD: The accountability court hearing a graft reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former finance minister Ishaq Dar on charges of having assets beyond his known sources of income has adjourned the hearing of the case till January 18.
Judge Muhammad Bashir adjourned the hearing on Tuesday after the NAB prosecutor informed him about the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) stay order on the accountability court’s proceedings against Dar.
The IHC, earlier in December, barred the accountability court from holding proceedings in the case till January 17, while hearing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader’s petition against the anti-graft court’s issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against him and an order declaring him a proclaimed offender.
During the last hearing of the reference in December 2017, four witnesses recorded their statements and presented Ishaq Dar’s salary and assets records before the court. The witnesses included private bank officer Afsar Faisal Shehzad, Cabinet Division Deputy Secretary Qamar Zaman and National Assembly Director Budget Sherdil Khan.
The court had also directed the NAB to submit its report pertaining to confiscation of properties of Dar and his guarantor and dismissed Dar’s request to appoint Qazi Misbah as his counsel.
On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
In its reference against the finance minister, NAB alleged that “the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million (approx)”.
The reference alleged that the assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for”.
In November 2017, the government withdrew the portfolio of finance minister of Dar.