Court allows auction of Ishaq Dar's assets

Accountability court accepted on Tuesday the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) request to auction off the assets of former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

During the hearing today, Judge Muhammad Bashir ordered the auction of Dar's property. Judge Bashir announcing his verdict said that it was up to the provincial governments regarding the former minster's property, local media reported. He said if the provincial governments wanted to auction off Ishaq Dar’s assets they could or keep them if they wanted to.

The court reserved its verdict on Monday after hearing arguments from both sides. Last week, NAB filed a petitioned in the accountability court requesting to sell the seized assets of the former finance minister. In his petition, NAB prosecutor said that Dar has been absconding the court proceedings for the past six months.

The prosecutor added that some assets were already seized, whereas, others were out of the court’s control. The petition requested the court to allow them to auction the assets that were already seized by the bureau.

Dar has been accused of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. After the Panama Papers revelation, NAB had filed corruption reference against Dar.