Dar petitions for quashing of warrants

Former FM seeks exemption from appearance in accountability court

ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Ishaq Dar has challenged his arrest warrants issued by the accountability court, terming them extra-legal and supra-constitutional.

Qausain Faisal Mufti, the counsel for Dar, filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), requesting it to set aside the accountability court’s bailable and nonbailable arrest warrants, as well as the issuance of a proclamation against the former finance minister.

Dar once again sought exemption from court appearances in person due to his ongoing treatment in London. The petition, which is yet to be taken up by the court, says Dar could travel back to Pakistan depending on the results of a cardiac MRI procedure he has to undergo next week.



The accountability court had issued non-bailable arrest warrant against Dar on November 14, and declared him an absconder on the next hearing on the 21st. The process to declare him a proclaimed offender has also been initiated.

Dar, in his new petition, maintains that he was regularly appearing before the court until October 23, when the case was adjourned for October 30. In the meanwhile, he led a government delegation to Dushanbe from where we went to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.

While in Saudi Arabia, he said, he felt heaviness in his chest and had to go to London for some tests. He added he was due to return to Pakistan on November 1 but his physician Dr Christopher Baker prescribed him coronary angiography which was to be conducted on November 3.



A medical report prepared by Dr Baker was produced before the court in Islamabad by Dar’s lawyers and they sought exemption from his personal appearance. The court, however, dismissed the plea and issued bailable arrest warrant.

Dar says he underwent an angiogram on November 3 but the report was not satisfactory and the doctor, Ranjit Dashpande, recommended further diagnostic procedures, over three to six weeks, to ascertain the extent of his ailment and decide whether he needed a stent or a heart bypass surgery.

The doctors’ reports were also produced and exemption from personal attendance was sought, but once again it was denied and the court issued non-bailable warrant on November 14.



“The absence of the petitioner is not deliberate but under the advice of his doctor/ cardio specialist. The petitioner has a trace mitral regurgitation. The respondent No 1 [accountability court judge] has grossly erred in not considering the medical certificates,” Dar’s petition says, adding that the court orders in his case so far have been passed in a slipshod manner.

Dar has also challenged the accountability court’s invoking Section 17-C of the National Accountability Ordinance to curtail the mandatory 30-day period under proclamation process to 10 days on the pretext of six weeks deadline set by the Supreme Court.

The petition says: “The timeframe given by the honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan was intended to expedite the proceedings of the trials but wrongly taken to circumvent the normal procedure mandated under Cr PC.”

The IHC is likely to take up the petition next week.