An accountability court on Monday accepted a supplementary reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
The supplementary reference was filed in a corruption case against Dar in which the former finance minister has been accused of holding assets beyond his means. The reference was filed in light of new evidence discovered during NAB's investigation of the case.
Three new suspects have been named in the reference, which spans seven volumes. National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed and the directors of two companies owned by Dar — Mansoor Raza Rizvi and Naeem Mehmood — have been named as suspects in the reference.
According to NAB, the reference contains further details about bank accounts owned by Dar and his companies.
The accounts have held as much as Rs482.84 million at various points, NAB said, adding that a $4.06 million transaction was also made through these accounts.
Assets beyond means
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 first set of references against the former 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 dependents 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”.