ISLAMABAD: The accountability court hearing the illegal assets reference against Senator Ishaq Dar on Friday adjourned the proceedings till April 2, owing to the absence of the lawyer of the co-accused.
The three co-accused of Dar namely National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) President Saeed Ahmad, Mansoor Raza and Naeem Mehmood were to be indicted in Friday’s hearing but the court adjourned the hearing of the supplementary reference due to the absence of the nominated individual’s lawyer.
Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir conducted the hearing of the case. All three co-accused were present in the court, however, their lawyer Hashmat Habib was absent from the proceedings. The assistant lawyer requested the court to adjourn the hearing for a day.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor while opposing the pleas asked the court to indict the three suspects in the case as the presence of lawyer on the occasion is not legally necessary.
“What difference will a day make? You usually appear before the court on daily basis,” replied the judge.
Saeed Ahmad also requested the NAB prosecutor for another chance to go through the high court order.
The court directed the suspects’ assistant lawyer to submit written plea pertaining to adjournment of hearing and absence of the lawyer. The hearing was postponed till April 2 after the lawyer complied with the orders.
On March 20, an accountability court dismissed an application filed by Saeed Ahmed requesting the court to ‘reject’ a reference filed by the NAB to his extent and frame charges only when there are grounds to proceed with the trial.
The decision was made as the court heard NAB’s supplementary reference against Dar, Saeed and two other accused.
Ahmed had filed the application under Section 265-D (when the charge is to be framed) of the Criminal Procedure Code, praying to the court to reject the supplementary reference to his extent in view. In addition, he prayed before the court that NAB working with the slogan “say no to corruption”, be subjected to pay compensation for his false involvement in the case.
On February 26, the anti-graft watchdog filed a supplementary reference against Ishaq Dar in the assets case with regard to alleged accumulation of assets beyond his known sources of income.
Three suspects, including NBP President Saeed Ahmed, Mansoor Raza and Naeem Mehmood were nominated for the reference.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Dar is accused of possessing assets disproportionate to his declared sources of income. A reference against him was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.
In its reference against the former 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.
