Dar’s plea challenging indictment dismissed
islamabad — The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed a plea challenging indictment by an accountability court in an interim reference against Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
The petitions submitted by Khawaja Harris, Dar’s counsel, maintained that the accountability court had not granted him a minimum period of seven days to peruse the material that the court had handed him two days before his indictment.
Dar was indicted by the accountability court on Wednesday — less than 48 hours after he received a copy of the reference filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), along with copies of related documents spanning 23 volumes.
Dismissing Dar’s petitions, a two-judge bench ─ consisting of Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb ─ said that the accountability court is an independent forum and maintained that Dar’s indictment could not be challenged.
Harris told the court that Ishaq Dar duly appeared before the accountability court on September 25, 2017 when the copy of reference along with interim investigation report and documents comprising 23 volumes were supplied to the petitioner, whereafter matter was adjourned for September 27, 2017 for framing of charge.
The court observed that the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, under which Dar’s reference was filed, states that the trial against the finance minister should be complete within 30 days. — APP