Graft case: NAB's new chief freezes assets of Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD - The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday reportedly frozen all assets of Fiance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is being tried in the accountability court in a corruption reference.

According to ARY news, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, new chairman of NAB, has issued orders to freeze all assets whether they are in Pakistan or abroad.

Under the orders, no transaction will be made through the bank accounts of Dar, while a ban has been imposed on sale and purchase of all property.

New Chief's Resolve

On October 11, former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal assumed charge as head of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by replacing outgoing chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

Talking to media outside the parliament on the day of assuming charge, Javed Iqbal had vowed to take all the NAB cases to logical conclusion.

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.

Indictment

On September 27, the 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.

The NAB authorities had provided a list of 28 witnesses. The court has recorded statement of three witnesses so far.