Accountability court orders to attach properties of Ishaq Dar's guarantor

ISLAMABAD - An accountability court on Thursday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to attach the properties of a guarantor of former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to produce him before the court in a corruption case.

Judge Mohammad Bashir was hearing the case filed by the NAB against him for possessing assets beyond known sources of income.

During the previous hearing, the judge had given a final warning to the guarantor, Ahmed Ali Qudusi, to bring the former minister in court or forfeit surety bonds worth Rs5 million.

However, the guarantor neither attended the court hearing not produce the accused. Therefore, the court directed NAB to attach the property of Quddusi and submit report on next hearing.

The court also recorded statement of another prosecution witness, Azeem Khan, in a corruption case against former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

The NAB witness, who is a banker, submitted computer-generated details regarding three bank accounts owned by the former minister.

The record of an account operated by Hajvery holding company and a bank locker was also submitted to the court.

During the hearing, two other witnesses – Masood Ghani and Abdul Rehman – who had earlier recorded their statement appeared again along with the record sought by the court. They were allowed to leave after submitting the record.

The hearing of the case was adjourned until December 18.

On next hearing, the court has summoned more witnesses, including deputy secretary Cabinet Division Wasif Hussain, former Nadra director Qaboos Aziz, banker Faisal Shahzad, deputy director commerce Qamar Zaman and National Assembly director Sherdil Khan .

Proclaimed Offender

On Monday, the accountability court declared former finance minister Ishaq Dar a proclaimed offender in a corruption case regarding possession of assets beyond means.

Judge Mohammad Bashir had announced the decision after the former finance minister did not attend the court hearings continuously as he is in London for medical treatment. He has skipped the last six hearings of the case.

Indictment

On September 27, the former finance minister had been indicted for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.

Dar had rejected the allegations levelled by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its reference prepared following the orders of the Supreme Court in its July 28 verdict in Panamagate case.

NAB Reference

According to the NAB reference, the accused had acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his name or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million as per the investigation conducted so far.

The assets are disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for, the reference said.