Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir suspends Ishaq Dar’s arrest warrants till Oct 7
ISLAMABAD, Sep 23 (SABAH): An accountability court in Islamabad suspended on Friday the arrest warrants of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader and former finance minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar in a case pertaining to declaring him a proclaimed offender till 7th October.
In 2017, the court had declared Ishaq Dar — who is in London — absconder in a corruption reference after he failed to join the trial against him.
During the hearing on Friday, the PML-N leader’s counsel Qazi Misbah requested the court to take back the arrest warrant it had issued against his client.
“The National Accountability Bureau should be stopped from arresting Dar. He will come straight to the court as soon as he lands in Pakistan,” Qazi Misbah promised.
Subsequently, accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir accepted the PML-N leader’s request and suspended his arrest warrants till October 7. He also barred NAB from arresting Dar, giving the former finance minister a chance to surrender before the court.
“We will consider permanently suspending Dar’s arrest warrants once he appears before the court in person,” the judge added.
Dar’s counsel filed a petition seeking the reversal of the arrest warrants on Thursday. The application pleaded that Dar should not be arrested when he returns home since he wanted to surrender to the court to join the trial.
The accountability court had then issued notice to NAB to file its version on Sept 23.
Earlier, Dar had also approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the order of an accountability court requiring him to be present in person during hearings in a corruption case against him.
In an application filed through his counsel, Dar sought an order by the apex court to exempt him from flying back to Pakistan, and allow his counsel to represent him in the accountability court, since his “health does not allow him to undertake air travel”. However, on Sept 22, the PML-N leader withdrew his application.
In 2017, an accountability court, while hearing a corruption reference against Dar, declared him a proclaimed offender due to his continued absence from the proceedings.
The former finance minister was elected as a PML-N senator on a technocrat seat in the Senate election on March 3, 2018.
However, he had not yet taken oath as a senator since 2017. The accountability court had declared Dar an absconder in a corruption reference.
In 2018, a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by former chief justice Saqib Nisar, suspended Dar’s Senate membership for not appearing before the court despite being summoned by the court repeatedly.