Tariq Ullah Wardak
ISLAMABAD: The accountability court hearing a corruption reference against former finance minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday, ordered the attachment of the properties held by a guarantor of Ishaq Dar after he failed to present the “proclaimed offender” before it in a corruption case.
At the last hearing, the court had issued a final warning to the guarantor, Ahmed Ali Qudusi, to produce Dar in court or forfeit surety bonds worth Rs five million.
Accountability Court Judge Mohammad Bashir issued the order while hearing a corruption case filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the direction of the Supreme Court.
Quddusi neither presented Dar before the court nor did he submit the Rs 5 million surety in exchange for his properties. Therefore, the court ordered the NAB to attach Quddusi’s properties and submit a report on December 18.
With the attachment, the properties held by Dar’s guarantor will become part of case record and will remain in the court’s custody, it said.
Meanwhile, the accountability court recorded statements of two prosecution witnesses.
Bankers Faisal Shehzad and Muhammad Azeem, appeared before the court and recorded their statement as prosecution witnesses.
The court had also re-summoned Masoodul Ghani and Abdul Rehman Gondal but later allowed the witnesses to leave as their statements were already recorded.
However, Azeem submitted details of accounts of Dar and his family.
He informed the court that NAB had asked for the details in August this year. He said Dar’s first account was operated from 2001 to 2012, second from Aug 2012 to Dec 2016 and third from Jan 2017 to Aug 2017.
The witness also presented details of Hajvery Holding Company’s account in court as well as the record of the locker operated in Dar and his wife’s name.
During the hearing, the court was informed that Shehzad was unable to appear in court due to the wedding of his sister.
Later, recording his statement, Rehman provided the income records of Dar from the years 2005 to 2017.
The hearing of the case was adjourned until December 18.
The court also issued notices to five more witnesses: Cabinet Division Deputy Secretary Wasif Hussain, Commerce Deputy Director Qamar Zaman, former NADRA official Qaboos Aziz, National Assembly Director Sher Dil Khan and private bank official Faisal Shehzad, who will record their statements on December 18.
The NAB’s prosecution team has submitted a list of 28 people as witnesses in the case, and have up till now recorded statements of as many as five witnesses in the case.
