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An accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to attach the properties held by a guarantor of Ishaq Dar, due to his failure to present the former finance minister before the court.
Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir was hearing the reference regarding assets beyond known means of income, filed against Dar by NAB on Supreme Court orders.
At the previous hearing, the court had issued a final warning to the guarantor, Ahmed Ali Qudusi, to produce Dar in court or forfeit surety bonds worth Rs5 million.
Quddusi neither presented Dar before the court not did he submit Rs5m surety in exchange for his properties. Therefore, the court ordered 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.
The court had on Monday declared Dar a proclaimed offender for his continued absence from proceedings in the case.
Witness statement recorded
Meanwhile, a prosecution witness provided details of three bank accounts held by Dar and his family to the court.
The statement of prosecution witness Azeem Khan, who belongs to a private bank, was recorded during Thursday's hearing.
Khan presented details of three bank accounts held by Dar and his family.
He said Dar's first account remained functional from October 2001 until October 2012. The second account was functional between August 2012 and December 2016, while the third account was active from January 2017 until August 2017.
Khan presented computer-generated details of all accounts held by the accused.
The details of account held by Hajvery holding company and record of the locker held by Dar and his wife was also presented in the court.
The court allowed witnesses Masood Ghani and Abdul Rehman to leave after they appeared with the record the judge asked for. They have already recorded their testimonies.
The hearing of the case was adjourned until December 18.
The prosecution asked the court to allow it to present nine witnesses at the next hearing. However, the court issued summons to five witnesses for appearance at the next hearing.
Those summoned at the next hearing include: deputy secretary Cabinet Division Wasif Hussain, deputy director commerce Qamar Zaman, former National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) director Qaboos Aziz, National Assembly director Sherdil Khan and Faisal Shahzad, who belongs to a private bank.
'Assets beyond known income'
On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
In its reference against the finance minister, NAB alleged that “the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependants of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million (approx)”.
The reference alleged that the assets were "disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for".
The government has since withdrawn the portfolio of finance minister from Ishaq Dar.
The noose seems to have been tightened around the former finance minister since NAB decided to reopen the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference against him.
In the previous hearing of the case, the court had issued a final warning to the guarantors of the former finance minister to produce him in court or forfeit surety bonds worth Rs5 million.
