ISLAMABAD, Oct 23 (TNS): The accountability court hearing a corruption case against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar recorded the statements of two prosecution witnesses on Monday.
During the proceedings, Dar’s counsel, Khawaja Harris, had a heated exchange with the prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Both witnesses, officials of two private banks, recorded their statements and were cross-examined by Harris.
Moreover, at the next hearing, the court has sought Dar’s reply on NAB’s request for it to order seizure of Dar’s assets in accordance with the NAB chairman’s directions.
The hearing was then adjourned until October 31. As the court resumed proceedings today in the assets reference case against Dar, the finance minister made his seventh appearance before Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir. The minister was accompanied by CADD Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and other party leaders.
As the hearing began, Abdul Rehman Gondal recorded his statement after which he was cross-examined by Harris.
Gondal also submitted details of an account owned by Dar inside the Parliament House.
He informed the court that he first appeared before the NAB’s investigation officer on August 17 this year.
During the cross-examination, a heated war of words ensued between Harris and NAB prosecutor Imran Shafiq, with the former taunting the latter for reportedly influencing the witness.
Following the cross-examination, the second witness, Masood Ghani, began recording his statement.
During his cross-examination, Khawaja Haris pointed out that the verified copies of bank documents presented by Ghani are different from the originals submitted to NAB. The court then asked the witness to appear in the next hearing with the original documents.
During the hearing, the judge observed that the objective of recording statements of various bank officials is to gather the accused’s bank data and compare it with his declared assets to ascertain the wrongdoing, if any.
The court has summoned two additional witnesses, Faisal Shahzad and Mohammad Azeem, also from the banking sectors, for the next hearing. The hearing was subsequently adjourned till October 30.
During the hearing the NAB submitted a request pleading the judge to endorse the NAB chairman’s decision to seize Dar’s assets. The court sought an answer from Dar on NAB’s request at the next hearing.
To-date, the court has recorded the statements of Ishtiaq Ali of Bank Alfalah, Shahid Aziz National Investment Trust and Tariq Javed of Al Baraka Bank.
The minister is accused of possessing assets beyond his declared sources of income in the reference filed against him by NAB on the directions of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case judgment.
