ISLAMABAD: An accountability court hearing a corruption reference filed against former finance minister Ishaq Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday issued a notice to the accountability watchdog on Dar’s plea seeking to unfreeze the accounts of his non-profit organisation, Hajveri Trust.
The former federal minister, who is currently in London seeking medical treatment, moved the application through his lawyer in the accountability court.
After the initial hearing, Judge Muhammad Bashir issued notice to the NAB prosecutor for furnishing reply to the application by Jan 18.
In the application, Dar contended that the trust runs an orphanage, where 93 orphans reside. It bears the expenses of their boarding, lodging, health and education, he added.
His lawyer told the judge that if the accounts of the trust were not unfrozen, it would have to be shut, risking the children’s future.
He requested the court to issue directives for the authorities concerned to unfreeze the trust’s accounts.
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 Rasheed 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”.
The court has declared him a proclaimed offender over his perpetual absence from the trial proceedings and attached his movable and immovable properties.
In November 2017, the government withdrew the portfolio of finance minister of Dar.
