ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Special Prosecutor Imran Shafiq and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s counsel Khawaja Haris exchanged harsh words with each other during the hearing of the minister’s assets beyond means case.
NAB witness Tariq Javed, a private bank officer, reappeared before the court along with e-mail record pertaining to the case, and told that NAB letter was not mentioned in it.
The prosecutor said that the letter attached to e-mail cannot be printed, upon which Khawaja Haris remarked not to consider them fools and said it is wrong. Imran Shafiq said Ishaq Dar’s counsel had earlier claimed that the witness will not be able to find the e-mail, but he has submitted the details and the court’s time should not be now wasted.
Khawaja Haris asked the prosecutor to sit down and let him cross-examine the witness. Imran Shafiq replied that it is your wish to send us out of the court, and you tried to evict us in previous hearing as well.
The hearing has been postponed till October 18, and the court has summoned two more witnesses for it. Furthermore, the court has set the time of 11:30 AM to start the proceedings.
Let it be known that the case, heard by judge Muhammad Bashir, was earlier adjourned in the morning till 12:00 PM due to the late arrival of Khawaja Haris.
The court, rejecting finance minister’s plea for exemption from appearance, had remarked that it wants the accused to be present during the hearing so that he may not raise any objection regarding the proceedings afterwards.
The minister had then gone back from accountability court due to the adjournment, and came back later when the proceedings started. It is also worth mentioning here that Ishaq Dar got annoyed over journalist’s question that whether he is resigning, and went away without saying anything.
On October 4, first prosecution witness recorded his statement before the accountability court while the second witness recorded his statement pertaining to the case on October 12.
During the previous hearing, the court had asked third prosecution witness Tariq Javed to reappear before the court along with e-mail record pertaining to the case. The court had summoned the fourth witness Masood Ghani to appear today to record his statement.
The accountability court had indicted Dar on September 27. The finance minister had denied all charges that were levelled against him terming them false, and submitted surety bonds worth five million rupees as per directions of the court.
