ISLAMABAD: Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s troubles doesn’t seem toending as now National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to fileanother reference against him on corruption charges.
NAB prosecutor informed the accountability court that the graft bodyintends to file a supplementary reference against former finance ministerIshaq Dar.
Accountability Court Judge Mohammad Bashir resumed hearing of the graftreference filed in compliance with the Supreme Court’s landmark July 28verdict.
At the outset of court proceedings, NAB prosecutor pleaded with the judgeto grant the prosecution some time as the investigation officer was on hisway to the court.
The court adjourned the hearing till 11:30pm.
Following a recess, the anti-graft body prosecutor apprised the judge thatall witnesses have testified against the accused other than the lastprosecution witness, Inamul Haq.
“The prosecution plans to file a supplementary reference against theaccused in the court after the testimony of last witness Inamul Haq,” hesaid.
On the occasion, he informed the judge that Haq was unwell and didn’t turnup at court in the last hearing, while urging the judge to issue arrestwarrant for the witness as he has recovered and deliberately skipping thehearings.
The judge then declined the request to issue the warrants and warned thewitness to ensure his presence in the next hearing.
The court then adjourned the hearing till February 23.
According to the NAB reference, Dar had acquired assets and pecuniaryinterests/resources in his name or in the name of his dependents of anapproximate amount of Rs831.678 million as per the investigation conductedso far.
In the previous hearing on Monday, Wajid Zia, head of the SupremeCourt-appointed JIT to probe the Sharif family’s wealth, appeared beforethe accountability court to record his statement in the assets referencefiled against former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
The court recorded the statement of the JIT head, who has been named as awitness in the case.
Wajid Zia submitted the Volume I and IX of the JIT report to the judge.
He informed the court that the former finance minister’s assets were aroundRs 9.1 million in 1999 as per his wealth statement, which increased toRs831.6 million in 2008-09.
He stated that Dar failed to provide any proof to the JIT to justify howhis assets multiplied by leaps and bounds in a decade.
The former finance minister had been declared a proclaimed offender overhis perpetual absence from the trial proceedings.
Earlier, the IHC had permitted the accountability court to resume ex parteproceedings against Ishaq Dar after discarding his plea to suspend hisdeclaration as proclaimed offender by the accountability court in the graftreference.