Ishaq Dar's lawyer cross-examines NAB witness in graft case

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday appeared before an accountability court in a graft reference against him for having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Judge Muhammad Bashir recorded the deposition of prosecution witness Ishtiaq Ali. The finance minister’s lawyer, Khawaja Harris, cross-examined the witness.

Ishtiaq Ali is one of a total of 16 prosecution witnesses who would testify against Dar in the case.

The hearing was adjourned till Oct 12 when the court will record more testimonies.

At the last hearing, the court had indicted the minister on charges of corruption, which he denied and opted to contest them.

The judge, thus, directed the prosecution side to produce its witnesses to record their depositions against the accused.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed two separate petitions of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against his indictment by an accountability court in a graft reference.

A division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb rejected the petitions for being non-maintainable.

The minister through his counsel Khawaja Haris had contended that his client was not allowed the minimum seven days to peruse the reference and voluminous reports before his indictment in the case under section of  265-C of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Thus, he pleaded the court to set aside his indictment.

According to the NAB reference, the accused had acquired assets and pecuniary interests/ resources in his name or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million as per the investigation conducted so far.

The assets are disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for.