Dar attends hearing, counsel absent

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of the reference concerning assets and funds beyond known sources of income against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar due to unavailability of his counsel Khawaja Haris.

As a protest over the absence, a prosecutor suggested putting Dar behind the bars which, he said, would definitely make his counsel attend the hearing, on which the defence team protested.

Haris’s junior counsel Qusain Faisal Mufti and Ayesha Hamid told the court that he was abroad in connection with something urgent and requested the court to put of the hearing till October 25. The court, however, turned down their request and fixed October 23 (Monday) as the hearing date, while Dar sitting inside the courtroom.

During the proceedings, the NAB prosecutors insisted that the statements of prosecution witnesses should be recorded and the junior counsel could cross-examine them.But Mufti and Ayesha said they had instructions not to cross-examine and only Haris would do that.

The court asked when Haris was likely to return, to which they said he would arrive in Lahore on Sunday night but he had to appear before a special bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) at the principal seat on Monday.

The junior counsels also tried to contact Haris through WhatsApp but told the court that he was not receiving the messages as he might be in the airplane but they had left a message for him.

Two prosecution witnesses – Masood-ul-Ghani (Manager Operations Habib Bank) and Abdur Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank had to record their statements and Haris was supposed to do cross-examination as agreed during the hearing. But the junior counsels said the court could record their statements but only their senior would cross-examine them.

There was some cross-talk between the prosecution and the defence counsel. The prosecutor at one instance said put the accused behind the bar and his counsel would definitely come to the court.

At this, Ayesha said the remarks and attitude was really uncalled for and court should take notice of that. Meanwhile, the court asked Dar to come forward and explain why his counsel was absent. He replied that Haris had to go abroad Tuesday night due to an emergency and he (Dar) was informed by one of the counsel’s associates in the morning.

On the suggestion that if a junior counsel may cross-examine, Dar said he would be satisfied with the senior counsel only. When the junior counsel requested to adjourn the matter till October 25, the court said it would result in a gap of 10 days. The counsel, however, said they could wrap up the things quickly, to which court replied that “the time passed can never come back”.

A prosecutor Afzal Qureshi suggested the court to start day-to-day hearing of the matter. Prosecutor Imran Shafique said Wednesday’s hearing was fixed for 11:30 am on the request of Haris and the trial could not be put to halt due to his engagements. “If the accused has the right of choice in terms of his counsel then he should appear before the court,” he added.

Meanwhile, the accountability court will indict Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Capt (retd) Safdar today (Thursday).  It has already exempted Nawaz from personal appearance and Zaafir Khan Advocate will appear before the court as pleader (substitute person who can either plead guilty or not guilty).

To avoid a situation like during a previous hearing when lawyers scuffled with police, the accountability court has issued directives for today’s hearing. The court has allowed for limited presence in the premises and directed the prosecution and defence teams as well as the reporters and the officials accompanying the suspects to keep the number of people inside the court minimum. Indictment proceedings may also get affected since Haris is also the lead counsel for Nawaz and he is abroad.   With regard to Dar, three prosecution witnesses have already recorded their statements with the cross-examination also completed.