Accountability court Islamabad judge Muhammad Bashir reissues perpetual arrest warrant for Dar in assets beyond means case
ISLAMABAD, May 18 (SABAH): An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday re-issued a perpetual arrest warrant of arrest for former finance minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar in the assets beyond means case against him.
Accountability Court-I judge Muhammad Bashir, while hearing acquittal pleas filed by the co-accused in the case, said the proceedings in the case will only move forward once Dar, who is in a self-imposed exile in London, will be arrested.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed the reference against Dar, who has been declared an absconder in the case since he has missed hearings owing to his prolonged stay in London, alleging that the former minister had acquired assets beyond his known sources of income.
The court also made conditional the issuance of a ruling on pleas seeking the acquittal of co-accused — former NBP president Saeed Ahmed Khan, Mansoor Raza Rizvi and Naeem Mehmood, who were directors of Ishaq Dar’s Hajveri Modaraba — on the PML-N leader’s arrest.
The co-accused had filed pleas for their acquittal and challenged the reference under the NAB amendment ordinance.
At Wednesday’s hearing, NAB Prosecutor Afzal Qureshi and counsel for the co-accused appeared before the court, and Judge Muhammad Bashir presided over the proceedings.
The judge ruled that the reference’s proceedings would not progress until Dar was arrested and presented before the court and the decision on the acquittal of the co-accused would be issued only after that.
The court then adjourned the hearing of the reference until Dar’s arrest.
In December 2017, an accountability court declared the former finance minister an absconder over his non-compliance with the authorities concerned in the corruption reference.
In 2019, following the orders of an accountability court, then Punjab government had sought the auctioning of Dar’s property. However, the decision was challenged by his wife before an appellate court.
Earlier this year, the court had withdrawn its order and the NAB was allowed to go ahead with the auction. Subsequently in February this year, NAB wrote a letter to the Lahore deputy commissioner asking them to auction the house without delay.
The four-kanal bungalow located in Lahore’s Gulberg area is estimated to have a market price of Rs250 million and NAB wants it to be auctioned under Section 88 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).