ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday resumed hearing of the assets case against former finance minister Ishaq Dar for allegedly accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.
During Wednesday’s hearing, prosecution witness Sher Dil Khan’s statement was recorded before the court.
Khan told the court that he is the finance director at the National Assembly and added that NAB had summoned records of Dar’s salary and allowances from him. Witness Mohammad Azeem’s cross-examination could not be held, however.
At the last hearing on April 25, Judge Muhammad Bashir recorded the testimony of witness Abdul Rehman Gondal against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader.
The witness, a bank employee, informed the court about the money transacted into Dar’s account on different occasions. After completion of his statement, the defence counsel cross-examined him.
The court summoned witness Sher Dil Khan on next hearing to record his statement.
It made another witness Muhammad Azeem’s testimony part of the trial proceedings against Dar and directed defence lawyers to cross-examine him at the next hearing.
The hearing of the case was adjourned till May 02.
On April 4, the co-accused named in the supplementary corruption reference against former finance minister Ishaq Dar were finally indicted after several adjournments.
In a supplementary reference filed earlier this year, NAB named National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi as co-accused. The latter two have been identified as directors of one of Dar’s companies. All three are accused of aiding Dar in opening fictitious bank accounts and transferring money abroad.
NAB REFERENCE:
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.