As expected, the Accountability Court had declared Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as a proclaimed offender as he failed to appear before the court for legal proceeding against him after the National Accountability Bureau leveled charges that he had huge assets comparing his known sources of income. To be specific, Dar is facing corruption charges.

The Presiding officer of the court issued orders to appear before the count for legal proceedings within three days otherwise submits surety of Rs five million. Otherwise, the court ordered that all his assets would be seized in favour of the State of Pakistan.

Fearing his arrest and definite conviction in the corruption cases, he is absconding from justice. Mr. Ishaq Dar is in London claiming to be unwell and undergoing treatment for which he sought leave which the court rejected. Mr. Ishaq Dar is the Finance Minister of Pakistan and currently he was granted a leave of three months by the Prime Minister who retained the portfolio of Finance. For all practical purposes, Mr. Ishaq Dar is the Finance Minister of Pakistan.

Earlier, saner elements suggested his resignation to face the serious allegations of corruption. The political opponents of the Government forcefully demanded his resignation as they too leveled serious corruption charges against Ishaq Dar.

Both Ishaq Dar and the present Government refused to concede the opposition’s demand and resisted it to this date when the Accountability Court declared the Finance Minister an absconder who is evading justice. Now ruling Finance Minister had been declared a proclaimed offender by a court of law, a serious embarrassment to the Government.

He is being accused of being a corrupt man who had misused his official powers and position and minted billions beyond his known sources of income. He had amassed huge wealth against his known sources of income.

He will have to explain this specific charge leaving aside other allegations which may come up after this case. In our political history it is the first Government that faced embarrassment on corruption charges and also by mishandling political and other issues forced a sizeable number of Ministers to resign under people’s pressure. The Ministers included Mr. Mushahidullah Khan, Mr. Pervaiz Rashid and Mr. Zahid Hamid. Now the Provincial Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah are also resisting the demand for their resignation. They were accused of being the real culprits in Model Town massacre in which 14 persons, including a woman, were gunned down by the police. Fingers are pointedly raised against the Chief Minister and Rana Sanaullah, for issuing order to Police to use maximum force which resulted in death of 14 persons.

Mr. Ishaq Dar is a charter accountant and not an economist holding the portfolio of Finance in all the three Nawaz Sharif Governments, presumably being a close relative and a trusted insider. He had drawn his strength from the office of the Prime Minister which made him arrogant, rude and crude.

There were complaints that Dar was rude and crude to even his party leaders and legislators and used to insult them whenever he got the chance. He hated Balochistan to the core and denied legitimate funds. He had shown contempt toward the Federal Parliamentary System of Government and still in favour of unitary form of Government.

Once the former Chief Minister of Balochistan approached the Finance Minister, Mr. Dar, and requested a development package of modest Rs 200 billion, he refused to oblige and directed the elected Chief Minister of Balochistan to go to the Council of Common Interests and he is not going to give a single additional penny to Balochistan outside the budget allocations.

Similarly complaints came from Sindh and KPK which claimed discrimination at the hand of Finance Ministry under Ishaq Dar. On the political plane, Ishaq Dar stood isolated along with his apolitical leader Nawaz Sharif. Opponents claimed that both the PML Leaders were more interested in minted billion than involved in good governance or serving the people of Pakistan.

They are more interested in mega projects from where they expected kickbacks and commission directly to their foreign bank accounts, the political opponents claimed.