ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Wednesday presented its first witness before an accountability court against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in a corruption reference on the orders of the Supreme Court in its July 28 judgment in Panamagate case.
Dar’s counsel, Khawaja Haris, cross-examined Ishtiaq Ali after he recorded his statement against the incumbent finance minister. Sources said two witnesses had been summoned but only one recorded a statement and was subsequently quizzed by the defence counsel. Two other witnesses, Shahid Aziz and Tariq Javed, have now been summoned on the next date of hearing – October 12.
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In his arguments, Haris contended that Ali was not a relevant witness as he was neither a scriber nor a custodian of documents produced by him before the court. Through the cross-examination of the prosecution’s witness, the defence counsel tried to establish that the witness was not even working in the bank at that time. “The witness was employed in 2005 while the record submitted before the court pertains to 2001 and 2005,” Haris upheld.
The accountability court had last week indicted Dar for amassing assets beyond his known sources of income and directed the prosecution to produce witnesses and evidence. In the reference, the top graft buster has alleged that the finance minister had acquired assets and ‘pecuniary interests’ and resources – beyond his known sources of income – in his own name and in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million.
