Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) has on Wednesday dismissed the plea by Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar against the accountability court proceedings. The high court also ended the stay order earlier provided to the finance minister, reported Daily Times.

Islamabad’s accountability court has already declared Ishaq Dar as fugitive over his constant absenteeism from the court proceedings where a assets beyond means case is being heard against him.

Ishaq Dar had filed a petition in IHC demanding annulment of the accountability court decision to declare him fugitive. The case was heard today by the 2-member bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb. Finance Minister’s new medical report was submitted before the court in which he had been advised not to travel.

NAB’s lawyer presented the case before IHC at the beginning of the proceedings, apprising the court about the status of the case against Ishaq Dar. He told the court that Ishaq Dar had been declared fugitive and wanted while his plea to grant exception from presence during the court proceedings.

Justice Athar Minallah asked Ishaq Dar’s lawyer if the minister was back in the country to which the lawyer replied that Ishaq Dar had been warned against travelling. Minallah said that Dar wasn’t suffering from any illness the cure of which wasn’t available in Pakistan. He said that the minister could even have come to Pakistan in an air ambulance. He rejected the lawyer’s plea to let Dar be treated by the doctor of his choice saying that equally good facilities for the treatment were also available here.

The court further said that the entire exercise at the accountability court would be futile without Dar’s presence. Athar Minallah said that the accused hadn’t been able to prove his good intentions in the case as yet while Justice Gul Hassan added that it seemed as if the medical report was prepared as per the wishes of the accused.

Upholding the decision by accountability court to declare Ishaq Dar fugitive, IHC ended the stay order on the court proceedings.

Ishaq Dar is currently in London and his lawyers have claimed before the court that their client was suffering from heart disease and was being medically treated in London.