An Islamabad accountability court on Wednesday issued a perpetual arrest warrant for former finance minister Ishaq Dar in a corruption reference.
The National Accountability Bureau had filed the reference against Dar, who has been declared an absconder in the case since he has missed hearings owing to his prolonged stay in London, alleging that the former minister had acquired assets beyond his known sources of income.
The court also made conditional the issuance of a ruling on pleas seeking the acquittal of co-accused, former NBP president Saeed Ahmed, Mansoor Raza Rizvi, and Naeem Mehmood, who were directors of Ishaq Dar’s Hajveri Modaraba, on the PML-N leader’s arrest.
The co-accused had filed pleas for their acquittal and challenged the reference under the NAB amendment ordinance. At the hearing, NAB prosecutor Afzal Qureshi and counsel for the co-accused appeared before the court, and Judge Muhammad Bashir presided over the proceedings. The judge ruled that the reference’s proceedings would not progress until Dar was arrested and presented before the court and the decision on the acquittal of the co-accused would be issued only after that. The court then adjourned the hearing of the reference until Dar’s arrest.
