Assets reference against Dar: Hearing adjourned due to counsel’s ailment

ISLAMABAD: The assets accumulation reference hearing against former finance minister Ishaq Dar was adjourned Thursday due to ailment of defence counsel, Geo News reported.

During the court proceedings, the court was requested to delay recording witnesses’ statements against the co-accused in the case as defence counsel was ill.

The court then adjourned the hearing until April 25.

On April 4, the co-accused named in the supplementary corruption reference against Ishaq Dar was finally indicted after several adjournments.

In a supplementary reference filed earlier this year, NAB named National Bank of Pakistan president Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi as co-accused.

The latter two have been identified as directors of one of Dar’s companies. All three are accused of aiding Dar in opening fictitious bank accounts and transferring money abroad.

Dar, a close aide of PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif, is accused of possessing assets disproportionate to his declared sources of income. NAB filed an interim reference against Dar in September last year in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28, 2017 verdict in the Panama Papers case.

The recently filed supplementary reference is based on seven volumes and includes the account details of the accused persons, with transactions amounting to $4.06 million, according to NAB’s special prosecutor Imran Shafiq. Dar was re-elected to the Senate earlier this year.