ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Monday reserved its decision on a petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking to auction former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s assets in the country.
A decision on the matter was reserved after the court heard arguments from the bureau.
The anti-graft body had filed the petition after Dar left for London for medical treatment. He has been declared an absconder in corruption cases filed against him in the accountability court.
Last week, NAB had also submitted details of the former finance minister’s assets that have been seized.
NAB’s special prosecutor Imran Shafiq informed the court that the assets could be sold if the reservations against it are not raised within the proscribed time period.
“The accused can approach the court till six months after the assets are sold,” he said.
Shafiq explained that Dar has not yet raised any reservations over the matter.
In its reference against the former finance minister, NAB had 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 declared him a proclaimed offender over his perpetual absence from the trial proceedings and attached his movable and immovable properties.
Dar, a former senator, has been in London since October last year on account of his medical treatment. Moreover, a reference against the former finance minister was filed by the NAB in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.
Dar had earlier been declared a proclaimed offender by the accountability court due to his continuous absence from the proceedings.
In November 2017, then-prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had accepted Dar’s request to be relieved of his duties as the finance minister.
