Accountability Court judge Muhammad Bashir ends proceedings in assets beyond means case against Ishaq Dar
ISLAMABAD, Nov 22, (SABAH): An accountability court on Tuesday disposed of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) proceedings against Finance and Revenue Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar and three co-accused including former president national bank of Pakistan Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Raza regarding the assets beyond means case.
The accountability court in Islamabad heard the acquittal plea of the three accused as well as Ishaq Dar on Monday, and Judge Muhammad Bashir announced the reserved verdict on Tuesday. “We do not have jurisdiction under the new act,” the court said, “therefore, we cannot proceed.”
The court sent the reference back to NAB while pronouncing the reserved verdict.
According to the court’s ruling, it doesn’t have the authority to rule over the petition.
The court said that it “cannot rule in favour of NAB or the accused” and concluded the trial against the finance minister.
“After the [National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022], this case does not fall under the jurisdiction of this court,” Judge Muhammad Bashir declared while announcing the verdict.
It is worth mentioning here that the courts across the country have returned cases after the government amended the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 a few months back as several cases do not fall under their jurisdiction anymore.
A case was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in December 2017 against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, accusing him of possessing assets disproportionate to his declared sources of income.
A reference against the PML-N leader was filed by NAB in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28, 2017, verdict in the Panama Papers case.
Ishaq Dar had also been declared a proclaimed offender by the accountability court due to his continuous absence from the proceedings — but in October 2022, the court suspended his arrest warrants after he appeared before it.
The PML-N leader was residing in London for five years in self-exile and after the formation of the coalition government, he came back to the country to take charge as the finance czar.
In August, the National Assembly passed the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, which sought to exclude private transactions from the scope of NAB.
Under the amended bill, the pecuniary jurisdiction of NAB had been fixed to only take action against mega scandals. Furthermore, it had been proposed that supplementary references can only be filed with the permission of the court to expedite the proceedings of the court within one year.
As per the bill, the investigation officers shall not harass any person during the investigation or inquiry and they will confine their questions relevant to the investigation or inquiry or for extracting evidence.