ISLAMABAD: The accountability court, which is scheduled to resume hearing in the graft reference against Ishaq Dar today (Monday), is likely to order freezing of the finance minister’s assets. Dar is set to appear before the court for the eighth time today. On the last hearing, judge Muhammad Bashir had directed the minister to furnish his reply by October 30 on a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) plea seeking freezing of his all movable and immovable assets. Two prosecution witnesses, whose statements were record earlier, will also appear today (Monday) in compliance with the court orders and submit additional documentary evidence against Dar. The statements of both the witnesses have already been recorded, whereas their cross-examination has also been conducted by Khawaja Haris Ahmad, senior counsel for Dar. These witnesses are Masood ul Ghani of Habib Bank and Abdul Rahman Gondal of the Allied Bank. The NAB will also produce two more witnesses today following the court’s earlier orders. These witnesses are Faisal Shahzad and Muhammad Azeem Khan- both from the banking sector. On the last hearing, during the cross-examination of both witnesses, a heated exchange of words had taken place between NAB’s prosecutor and Khawaja Haris, when the latter had asked some technical questions from the prosecution witnesses. NAB prosecutor had contended that Haris was creating a hostile atmosphere by cross-examining the witnesses in such a manner. Haris, however, had asked the prosecutor to address media if he wanted to make the headlines. The judge had also admonished the NAB’s prosecutor, saying that he should restrain himself only to the legal points instead of indulging in academic materials. The prosecutor had claimed that the witnesses were being influenced by the defendant. One of the witnesses, Abdul Rehman Gondal, has submitted details of an account owned by Dar in a bank situated inside the Parliament House. He told the court that he first appeared before the NAB investigator along with the relevant record on August 17, 2017. He stated that he provided bank statements of Dar from March 25, 2005 to August 16, 2017 to NAB. The second witness, Masood ul Ghani, has told the court that he has also provided all available details of Dar’s bank account to the NAB’s investigator. In his cross-examination, Khawaja Haris has contended that the verified copies of bank documents presented by Ghani were different from the originals submitted to the NAB. The court then had directed both the witnesses to also appear on next hearing with the original and additional documents. The court had noted that the evidence of both the witnesses was not being closed. Published in Daily Times, October 30th 2017.