Corruption reference: AC approves permanent exemption from hearing plea of accused

The Accountability Court hearing a corruption reference against former finance minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar on Monday granted permanent exemption to one accused from personal appearance before it on medical grounds.

The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Bashir, hearing the case granted permanent exemption to co-accused former president of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Saeed Ahmed on medical grounds.

At the start of the course of hearing, the defence counsel, Qazi Misbah, filed an application before the court to grant permanent exemption to his client on medical grounds.

He told the court that Ahmed was suffering from multiple diseases due to which he was unable to attended court proceedings.

The other two accused of the case are Mansoor Raza Rizvi and Naeem Mehmood, who were nominated in the supplementary reference.

The anti-graft body filed a supplementary reference against Dar on February 26th last year.

The reference comprises seven volumes and includes 24 witnesses and three co-accused namely former president of NBP Saeed Ahmed, Mansoor Raza Rizvi and Naeem Mehmood, both directors of Dar's companies.

The court adjourned the hearing of the case till March 4th.