Court orders auction of three more plots belonging to Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD  -  The accountability court on Monday ordered to auction three more plots of former finance minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) today submitted a report pertaining to the plots belonging to Ishaq Dar, his wife Tabassum Ishaq Dar and son Ali Mustafa Dar in the accountability court.

As per the report, the family owns three plots, each of two kanals. The court also directed the Punjab government to confiscate the plots belonging to Ishaq Dar and his family. The accountability court had earlier allowed the bureau to auction properties and other assets held by Ishaq Dar.

While announcing the reserved verdict on NAB’s plea, Justice Mohammad Bashir directed to put the former finance minister’s Lahore properties and his vehicles on auction. The court said it was the prerogative of the Punjab government to either sell the assets or retain them with itself.

NAB had approached the accountability court for the auction of movable and immovable properties of the ex-minister as he is absconding in assets beyond income reference. The bureau has also seized all properties of Dar including a house in Lahore, three plots in Al-Falah Housing Society, six acres of land in Islamabad, two-kanal plot in Parliamentarians Enclave, one plot in the Senate Cooperative Housing Society, another plot of two kanals and nine marlas in Islamabad and six vehicles.

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 of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

In its reference against the former minister, NAB had alleged that “the accused had 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”.

The reference alleged that the assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for”. In November last year, the accountability court had declared ex-finance minister Ishaq Dar an absconder and rejected the PML-N leader’s petition in which he sought immunity from hearing of assets beyond known sources of income reference.

 

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