ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on the assets reference against former finance minister Senator Ishaq Dar till January 2, 2018, owing to the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) restraining order.
When the court judge Muhammad Bashir resumed the hearing, National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) prosecutor informed that the IHC had stayed the proceedings till January 17. The court directed the NAB prosecutor to produce copy of the IHC stay order. The prosecutor however stated that he had applied for attaining the copy of the stay order and it will be submitted as soon as it would be issued. On December 20, a division bench of the IHC ordered the accountability court to stop proceedings against former finance minister Senator Ishaq Dar till January 17, 2018. The bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb ordered this while hearing a petition filed by Dar against the accountability court order declaring him a proclaimed offender and issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against him.
The court also restrained the accountability court from confiscating the properties of Ahmad Ali Quddusi, a guarantor of Dar, who furnished Rs 5-milion surety bond. On December 18, Dar had challenged before the IHC the accountability court’s December 14 order of declaring him a proclaimed offender and seeking the details of his guarantor’s properties and assets from NAB for attachment. NAB has submitted the details of Quddusi’s the movable properties to the accountability court for confiscation. In compliance with the Supreme Court’s July 28, 2017 orders in the Panama Paper case, NAB had filed a corruption reference against Dar for possessing assets beyond his known and declared sources of income. NAB has submitted a list of 28 witnesses in the court against Dar, out of which five have recorded their statements so far.
Published in Daily Times, December 22nd 2017.
