Ishaq Dar challenges indictment by NAB court in IHC

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday approached the Islamabad High Court against his indictment by an accountability court in a graft reference filed against him by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for his assets beyond his means, ARY News reported.

The minister filed a petition through his counsel requesting it to set aside his indictment in the NAB reference.

His counsel contended in the petition that the minister was indicted in a helter-skelter manner without fulfilling legal requirements. Thus, he pleaded with the court to review the trial’s decision to indict him.

On Sept 27, Judge Muhammad Bashir of the accountability court had read out charges against the minister, which he denied and opted to contest them.

The court would take up the case on Oct 4 when it would record depositions of prosecution witnesses.

The court had rejected a request by Dar’s counsel, Amjad Parvez, to adjourn the indictment for a week so that he could peruse the voluminous report.

It observed that it would conduct day-to-day hearings in the reference, so that the trial is concluded within six-month deadline set by the Supreme Court.

The finance minister was appeared before the court after it issued bailable warrants for his arrest and submitted a surety bond worth Rs1 million to seek bail in the case.

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.