- NAB court continues eight-hour-long hearing against key federal minister
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday presented two witnesses – Shahid Aziz of the National Investment Trust and Tariq Javed of the Al-Baraka Bank – before the Accountability Court to record their statements during hearing against Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar in corruption reference.
The NAB has already submitted a list of 28 witnesses with the court. Justice Mohammad Bashir adjourned the hearing till October 16 after an eight-hour-long hearing of the corruption reference filed against Senator Dar.
During the hearing, witness Shahid Aziz informed the court that Senator Dar had invested Rs120 million as a finance minister in 2015, but he withdrew this money from the trust after the Panama Papers case was initiated in January 2017.
Prosecution’s witness Tariq Javed submitted the details of Senator Dar’s five accounts – belonging to his two companies and spouse: details of the bank accounts of Dar’s wife and the companies Hajveri Modarba and Hajveri Holdings.
Javed told the court that Senator Dar had opened an account in the bank’s Lahore branch in 1991, and added that Tabassum Ishaq Dar was also an account holder in the bank and owns a company – HDS Securities Private Limited.
Dar’s counsel Khawaja Muhammad Haris cross-examined the witnesses and argued on the legitimacy of the submitted documents. However, the witnesses claimed that all the documents submitted in the court were genuine and attested.
He said that the electronic statement cannot be taken as primary evidence and asked the court to add his objection in the record; upon which, NAB prosecutor Imran Shafiq argued it was court’s job to decide what was primary evidence. He said that any unverified or missing documents can be corrected or added later.
Earlier in the day, Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz said that they have objected to the documents provided by the prosecution, saying the documents weren’t proven. Doubting proceedings against Senator Dar, he said that it was surprising that Dar was not included in the list of the Panama papers list submitted to the court by Jamaat-e-Islami.
He said that no one else, who was part of the list, had been summoned by the court. He said that the case against the finance minister was a political but despite that they appeared before the court. The finance minister was accompanied by Daniyal Aziz and State Minister Anusha Rehman in the court.
Strict security measures were arranged inside and outside the judicial complex with nearly 200 policemen guarding the complex. Moreover, all routes with the exception of one entry point were sealed off to restrict entry into the area.
During the previous hearing pertaining to the case, one of the two prosecution witnesses – Bank Alfalah’s former manager Ishtiaq Ali – recorded his statement in the court in connection with the corruption references that had been filed against the minister.
The witnesse testified before the court that while the accused holds an account with the Bank Alfalah, his wife owns a security company. Dar, nevertheless, maintained that he had opened an account with the bank in 2005, but had shut it a year later.
In his arguments, Khawaja Haris contended that Ali was not a relevant witness as he was neither a scriber nor a custodian of the documents produced by him before the court. He also tried to establish that the witness was not even working for the bank at the time, arguing that he was employed in 2005, while the record submitted before the court pertained to 2001 and 2005.
