Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The defence in the assets case against former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar completed today its cross-examination of prosecution witness Masood Al-Ghani.

Ghani is associated with a private bank and was cross-examined by defence counsel Qazi Misbah on Wednesday.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Adnan Shuja who is an assistant lawyer of Hashmat Habib, the counsel of co-accused Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood, and Mansoor Raza, asked the court for leave to perform Umrah.

In response, Judge Muhammad Bashir claimed that Hashmat Habib was already not appearing before the court due to health reasons, and since the case was underway, how could Shuja leave now?

In the case’s last hearing on May 16th, prosecution witness Mohammad Azeem had produced cheques before the court that highlighted the payments Ishaq Dar made to the Hajvery Foundation.

Azeem’s testimony highlighted that the former finance minister had paid a total of Rs65.3 million to the Foundation.

The case itself involves the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) initiating proceedings against Ishaq Dar for possessing assets that do not equate with his known sources of income, and follows the original Supreme Court verdict in the historic Panama Papers case verdict in July 2017.

NAB filed an interim reference against Dar in September 2017, who was later indicted in the case but has been absconding since then.

The national watchdog later filed references against National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, and held them as co-accused in the case.

Memhood and Rizvi, meanwhile, are directors of a company Ishaq Dar owns.