Prithee what ails thou Mr Dar?

The absent Mr Ishaq Dar is not going to have a good week. On Monday 11^th December the accountability court declared him and absconder in relation to a corruption reference. The former finance minister has repeatedly failed to join the trial. The reason for his serial failure to appear is that he is allegedly undergoing medical treatment in London, and at one point he did indeed appear in a photo published in the national media dressed in a hospital gown and clearly on a hospital bed with assorted attached tubes and wires. This is now several weeks ago and no information is forthcoming as to his precise medical status or location.

Whilst we wish no ill of Mr Dar and indeed hope for a speedy recovery there do appear to be missing details from the various medical reports submitted in his mitigation. His defence counsel, Advocate Mufti, told the court that Mr Dar was “suffering from chest pain and a minor issue in a coronary artery.” It has to be noted that there are coronary care units in Pakistan that are up to international standards and his condition is not so severe or unusual as to require treatment in a foreign country. Care and diagnostics are available here of equal standard to any he may get in the UK.

Of course, as he is in the UK he is beyond the reach of any court in Pakistan. The British are unlikely to extradite him as there is as yet no finding of guilt. The alleged offence — that he has accumulated assets far beyond his declared income(s) — is a white-collar crime that is notoriously difficult to prove anywhere in the world. His assets are now likely to be frozen — at least those that are in Pakistan; those that may be elsewhere are again beyond reach and he will doubtless have prudently protected his holdings somewhere offshore. With the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case pending — in which Mr Dar is also listed as an absconder — he has scant incentive to return to his natal shores. We expect no early resolution.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2017.

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