Reference against Dar: Lawyer claims discrepancy in NAB witness account

Accountability court sees heated exchanges between defence and prosecution teams

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court in Islamabad on Monday saw frequents exchanges between the prosecutors from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the defence lawyer during the hearing of a corruption reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir also denied exemption to the minister from the hearing to attend to official business after the NAB insisted that under the law, the presence of the accused was mandatory for recording of evidence.

While cross-examining a prosecution witness, Dar’s counsel Khawaja Haris claimed foulplay in the correspondence between a private bank and NAB. At one stage, he told the court that the witness, Tariq Javed, was “telling a lie”.



Haris said NAB faxed Javed a letter, instructing him to provide it documents at 2:05pm on August 16, and Javed’s correspondence with his head office through an email was done at 12:45pm the same day. “How come NAB’s letter become a part of an email when it was sent after the email,” Haris asked.

The court is seized with a NAB reference against Dar over accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income. On the previous hearing, Javed was questioned as to who asked him to provide evidence in the case, and he had said he received an email from his head office.

When he couldn’t produce the record of the email before the court on October 12, Haris had asked him to bring record of the email. When the witness produced the record on Monday, Haris pointed out the discrepancy, saying the “witness was telling a lie”.

NAB Prosecutor Imran Shafiq raised objection to the “selection of words” and said the defence counsel was pressurising the witness. His point was that under the law of evidence, the defence counsel could not ask about the contents of the documents at the stage of the trial.

When the judge asked Haris about the importance of discrepancy, he said: “265-K”, referring to the section of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that relates to the powers of court to acquit accused at any stage.

During the hearing, there were several instances of cross talk between the defence and the prosecution. NAB team raised objections that Haris was posing irrelevant questions.



Due to the frequent interruptions, at one point, Haris directly addressed a NAB prosecutor, saying: “You lost all respect in my eyes”. And the NAB prosecutor retorted: “You don’t even want us here inside the court.”

At the outset of the hearing, Haris sought exemption from personal appearance for Dar, saying he had to attend a joint meeting of the cabinet and revenue division. Shafiq was quick to oppose the request, saying that presence of the accused was mandatory for recording evidence.

The NAB prosecutor said nothing was important than appearing before the court and that exemption could only be granted on medical grounds or any unavoidable circumstances. Subsequently, the court turned down the exemption application.

Like the previous two prosecution witnesses, Javed also accepted that all the documents submitted before the court were not prepared by him, nor did he fill up the content forms. He admitted he did not even sign the documents. He said he only had a glance at some important contents.

Following the cross-examination of Javed, the court issued summons for two more prosecution witnesses, Abdur Rehman Gondal and Masood-ul-Ghani, and adjourned further hearing until Wednesday, October 18.

The reference against Dar alleges that his assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income, not reasonably accounted-for.” Dar had pleaded not guilty, when he was indicted by the court on September 27.