Corruption reference against Dar: AC adjourns case till 16th

The Accountability Court hearing a corruption reference against former finance minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday adjourned the case till October 16 due to unavailability of the letter about completion of investigations against Dar.

While hearing the assets beyond means case against Dar, Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir adjourned the hearing till October 16 due to non-availability of letter regarding completion of investigations against Dar. The Investigation Officer National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Nadir Abbas submitted initial investigation report conducted in 2007 before the court.

The defence counsel asked investigation officer if he had letter of completion of investigation against Dar. The investigation officer replied that he did not have the letter of completion of investigations. Due to non-availability of letter, the court adjourned the case till October 16 and ordered NAB to produce the letter on the next hearing.

The NAB filed a supplementary reference against Dar on February 26 last year. The reference comprises seven volumes and includes 24 witnesses and three co-accused namely former president of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Saeed Ahmed, Mansoor Raza Rizvi and Naeem Mehmood, both directors of Dar's companies. During the hearing, the three co-accused were present in the court room.

A reference was filed by the Bureau against Dar following the Supreme Court's July 28, 2017 verdict in the Panama Papers case. It may be mentioned here that the Accountability Court declared Dar a proclaimed offender due to his continuous absence from the court during the hearings of the case.