ISLAMABAD: The accountability court (AC) will today resume hearing of the assets beyond income reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar filed by the country’s anti-graft watchdog National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir will resume hearing of the reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
Ishaq Dar is currently in London and is unlikely to return to the country and appear for the accountability court hearing.
The anti-graft watchdog had also summoned the finance minister and his family members for submission of details of their assets.
In the last hearing, the AC had issued bailable arrest warrant of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for failing to appear before the court.
Dar’s counsel Khawaja Haris had said in the application that Dar fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe and requested the court to exempt him from personal appearance.
In September, the court had indicted Dar in the Panama Papers case, and he was charged for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.
The minister had called the charges baseless and pleaded not guilty. On September 8, the NAB had filed the case of disproportionate assets against Dar. The case was lodged after the Supreme Court, on July 28, disqualified then prime minister Nawaz Sharif as an MP, forcing him to step down as the prime minister.
The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family.