Allegations against Ishaq Dar seem frivolous

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Wednesday said that allegation against Ishaq Dar of having Rs 831 million assets beyond income seems frivolous.

"He has been a Chartered Accountant (CA) and international CAs draw salaries in millions. Moreover, property prices increased manifold. Therefore, such a charge against a person like Dar seems frivolous," he said talking to a private media channel.

The minister said whole the nation was witnessing this proceeding against Ishaq Dar and knows well what was going on. "NAB was ordered to file reference and it has filed. But, the allegation seemingly does not carry much weight. There should be certain reasoning for leveling an allegation."

He said it was for the first time that a Joint Investigation Team was constituted in such a case. That is why we had objections on members of the JIT and our objections were validated by remarks a Judge of the apex court about integrity of one of the JIT members in another case.

Sanaullah said the whole nation was looking this process with concern and questions as to who would be responsible for the losses being inflicted on the country.

Answering a question about restricting media, he said, the government could not intervene when the matter relates to court premises.

"Within the court premises the entry of anybody is discretion of the court and it has to decide whether to hold open hearing or in a closed door court room."

He further stated that there was no reason with the government to bar media because firstly it did not want to hide anything from media and secondly, all information to be discussed in the court was already with the media in the forms of copies of the references.