Islamabad (September 28, 2018): The National Accountability Bureau has submitted details of former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s assets that have been seized before an accountability court.
Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir heard a NAB petition to sell former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s assets in Pakistan.
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As the hearing began, NAB special prosecutor Imran Shafiq presented his arguments and said if reservations are not raised within the given time then the assets can be sold. “The accused can approach the court till six months after the assets are sold,” he added.
Shafiq further said that so far Dar has expressed no reservations and even if he appears before the court after the assets are sold then he can be granted his rights.
The NAB special prosecutor also requested the court to issue an order regarding Dar properties in Islamabad and Lahore which are beyond the court’s ambit.
Judge Bashir then asked the NAB special prosecutor to submit details of Dar’s properties that have been seized after which the court went on break. When the hearing resumed, the NAB prosecutor submitted the details of the seized assets.
According to NAB, Dar owns three flats in Dubai, a house in Lahore’s Gulberg, four plots in Islamabad and one luxury car.
NAB also informed the court that the former finance minister is a shareholder in three companies based in Dubai, while his wife owns six cars in Pakistan. “Dar and his wife have also invested Rs3,453,000 in Hajveri Holdings Pvt Limited.”
Earlier on September 27, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday sought the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) permission to sell off assets held by absconding suspect Ishaq Dar.
The bureau’s special prosecutor, Imran Shafiq said in the petition that the PML-N leader has been declared an absconder by both NAB and the court and is wanted in corruption cases.
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The former finance minister was declared fugitive in case pertaining to assets beyond income means and efforts were underway to bring him back to Pakistan through Interpol.
Earlier on July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
In its reference against the finance minister, NAB had alleged that “the accused had acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependants of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million (approx)”.
The reference alleged that the assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for”.
In November last year, the accountability court had declared Dar absconder and rejected the minister’s petition in which he sought immunity from hearing of assets beyond known sources of income reference.
The former finance minister has been in London since October last year on account of his medical treatment and has been declared an absconder in the corruption case against him. Later, red warrants were sought for his arrest.
The case
The former finance minister is accused of possessing assets disproportionate to his declared sources of income.
A reference against the former finance minister was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.
Dar had earlier been declared a proclaimed offender by the accountability court due to his continuous absence from the proceedings.
In November 2017, then-prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had accepted Dar’s request to be relieved of his duties as the finance minister.
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