Ishaq Dar assets case: Two accused seek delay in indictment

ISLAMABAD: Two accused in the Ishaq Dar assets case have petitioned the court against their planned indictment on March 12.

The accountability court hearing the assets accumulation case against former finance minister Dar had on March 5 ordered to indict the other accused in the case on March 12.

The legal counsel of the accused, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, argued before the judge today that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had provided their clients with a 700-page-long reference, many pages of which are unclear.

According to the lawyer, 70 of the 700 pages in the reference are in foreign languages.

The defendants prayed to the court that they could not be indicted until the provision of clear documents along with their translations.

The accountability court issued a notice to NAB to submit its response on the plea and will hear the matter on March 12, the next date of hearing. 

The case

Dar, a close aide of Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif, is accused of possessing assets disproportionate to his declared sources of income.

NAB filed an interim reference against Dar in September last year in light of the Supreme Court's July 28, 2017, verdict in the Panama Papers case.

The supplementary reference is based on seven volumes and includes the account details of the accused persons, with transactions amounting to $4.06 million, according to NAB's Special Prosecutor Imran Shafiq. 

Dar was recently re-elected to the Senate of Pakistan.