Assets reference: NAB witness provides detail of Ishaq Dar's bank accounts to court

ISLAMABAD - Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday reached accountability court to attend hearing of a reference related to assets beyond means filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Judge Mohammad Bashir resumed the hearing of the case in which he has summoned two witnesses of the prosecution - Shahidh Aziz and Tariq Javed - in the case.

Tariq Javed submitted the bank account details of Hajveri Modarba, owned by Dar. He also provided details of other bank accounts hold by Dar's family.

Tariq Javed informed the court one account was opened with Al Baraka bank in 1991, adding that he had provided all record, including detains of Tabassum Ishaq Dar's account to NAB Lahore on its request.

Ishaq Dar’s counsel Khawaja Haris raised questions regarding the validity of the documents, adding that anyone can prepare such documents.

In reply, NAB prosecutor said that the documents are authentic as these have been prepared following electronics transaction ordinance, adding that it is up to the court to accept or reject the papers.

The prosecutor said that the bank statement carries record from October 14, 2000.

Khawaja Haris informed the court that his client did not make any transaction since 2006, besides asking the court to add the Dar's objection to the record.

PML-N stalwart Daniyal Aziz, Anusha Rehman, Barrister Zafarullah, Tariq Fazal are also present in the court.

Ahead of appearance, strict security measures  have been take by the Islamabad police, while there is no deployment of Rangers around the federal judicial complex.

On October 4, the court had recorded statement of Ishtiaq Ahmad, a former manger of Bank Alfalah, who was also cross-examined by Dar's counsel, Khawaja Haris.

Ishtiaq Ahmad verified that the minister holds an account in the bank and his wife Tabassum Ishaq Dar possesses a company, HDS Securities Private Limited.

During the hearing, Dar said that he had opened an account with Bank Alfalah in 2005 but had closed it in 2006.

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 in the case on which the court directed the prosecution to produce two of the witnesses on next hearing, which is scheduled for today.

Petition against Indictment

On October 3, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday dismissed two separate petitions of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar challenging his indictment and trial by an accountability court.

A division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, while dismissing the petitions for being non-maintainable, suggesting that the petitioner should take up any objections with the monitoring judge of the Supreme Court.

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.