Court adjourns Assets Case hearing against Dar till May 9

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of a corruption reference against former finance minister Ishaq Dar till May 09.

The former minister was indicted in a case for accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income.

Accountability court in Islamabad presided over by Judge Muhammad Bashir heard the case against Ishaq Dar today.

Three co-accused – National Bank president Saeed Ahmad, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Raza Rizvi were present during the court hearing.

The trio faces charges of aiding Dar in opening fictitious bank accounts and transferring money abroad.

In hearing of the case today, a prosecution witness Sher Dil Khan informed the court that he was presently Director General Finance. He told the court that on a summon of National Accountability Bureau Lahore he was appeared before an investigation officer on August 22 last year.

The NAB had demanded the record of salary and allowances of Ishaq Dar, the witness said. He submitted the record of Ishaq Dar as MNA from 1993 to 1996, to the accountability bureau, witness Sher Dil Khan said.

Ishaq Dar was paid Rs. 7,26,640 in the period of four years, he further said.

Another witness Muhammad Azeem could not be cross-examined by the defence lawyer during the hearing today. The court had made testimony of Muhammad Azeem as part of the trial proceedings against Dar in the previous hearing.

In previous hearing Judge Muhammad Bashir also recorded testimony of witness Abdul Rehman Gondal against the PML-N leader.

The witness, a bank employee, informed the court about the money transacted into the former finance minister’s account on different occasions.

After completion of his statement, the defence counsel cross-examined him.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against Dar in September 2017 on the Supreme Court’s directives in the Panama Papers case.

In the reference, NAB alleged that Dar “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) as per investigation conducted so far”.

The reference said that Dar’s assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for”.