Accountability court cancels finance minister Ishaq Dar's arrest warrant

An Islamabad accountability court cancelled on Friday Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s arrest warrant in the assets beyond means case filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

On September 26, Dar arrived in Pakistan after five years in London.

In Friday's hearing, Dar appeared before accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir with his lawyer Qazi Misbah. The lawyer asked the court to permanently cancel the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader's arrest warrant as well as the order to confiscate his assets.

He said warrants should be cancelled now as the minister is present before the court.

Dar appears before NAB court, seeks cancellation of arrest warrant

Judge Bashir asked the NAB prosecutor about the bureau’s opinion on this, to which the prosecutor supported the request to cancel the warrants.

Cancelling his arrest warrant, the judge directed the finance minister to submit surety bonds of Rs1 million.

During the previous hearing on September 28, Dar appeared before the court to seek the cancellation of his arrest warrant.

The PML-N leader told the court that he wanted to come to Pakistan despite being unwell, but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government had seized his passport.

Issuing notice to the NAB, the court had deferred the hearing till October 7 (today).