ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Wednesday adjourned the assets accumulation reference against former finance minister Senator Ishaq Dar until March 20.
The court had reserved its decision on the petition of two other accused against their indictment. On March 5, Judge Mohammad Bashir, who is presiding over the case, had ordered the indictment of National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi in the assets reference.
All the three have been accused in the supplementary reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against Dar. Two of three had filed a petition with the court last week against their planned indictment. The accountability court had issued a notice to NAB to submit its response to the plea.
The NAB prosecutor opposed the plea saying that the defence was just using it a delaying tactic. The court reserved its order over the plea against indictment after hearing arguments from the suspects’ counsel Qazi Misbah.
In its reference against the former finance minister, NAB alleged that “the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependents 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”.
The court has declared him a proclaimed offender over his perpetual absence from the trial proceedings and attached his movable and immovable properties. In November 2017, the government withdrew the portfolio of finance minister of Dar.
