The Accountability Court hearing corruption case against former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Monday reserved its verdict on an application filed by two co-accused seeking acquittal from the case. The Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir reserved his verdict on the application filed by two accused Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, who are directors of Dar's companies, after both parties of the case completed their arguments. The verdict will be announced on July 27.
Qazi Misbah, the counsel for the two co-accused, while arguing before the court said that prosecution has failed to provide concrete evidence to prove the allegations leveled against his clients. He also said that the court wants to proceed against the accused nominated in the supplementary reference. "The presence of principal accused Dar is mandatory for proceedings against the co-accused," he said.
He requested the court to stop further proceedings of the cases till the principal accused appears before the court. The joint investigation team (JIT) that probed the Panama Papers case mentioned seven bank accounts in its volume-10, which is related to Hudaibiya Paper Mills, he said, adding that transactions had been continued from 1993 to 1998 from these accounts.
He said that the Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference was prepared in the year 2000. The supplementary reference filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has nothing to do with the transaction record of Dar.
Misbah said the NAB after filing a supplementary reference put the Supreme Court's order related to the Hudaibiya case on the backburner. The NAB has produced banking transaction record in the supplementary reference, he said, adding that on March 16, 1995, $2,072,500 were transferred from the account of Musa Ghani to the accused Saeed Ahmad.
He further said that Musa Ghani on October 11, 1995 had transferred $66,154 to a person namely Steve. On December 21, 1995, $1,240,000 were transferred to the account of Saeed Ahmad, he added.
The counsel said that banking transaction mentioned in Volume-10 establishes a link between Musa Ghani and Saeed Ahmad. "The banking transactions have established that his clients Mehmood and Rizvi have nothing to do with this case," he said, adding that all the transactions mentioned in the Volume-10 took place in the time of the Hudaibiya Paper Mills. The Supreme Court had directed to stop the investigation of the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case.
While objecting to the defense counsel's plea, Special Prosecutor NAB Imran Shafiq said that the details of bank accounts presented by the defense have nothing to do with the case.
It is not the case of prosecution that the two co-accused had opened bank accounts but prosecution is of the view that these accused facilitated opening and operation of fake accounts opened in the name of Saeed Ahmad, he said.
The NAB can take action against cases which have taken place since 1985, he said. He said the NAB has so far not produced majority of its witnesses in supplementary reference and the defense is trying to deprive prosecution of producing evidence. He requested the court to reject the application and allow the NAB to produce its witness in the case.
Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi on July 12 filed their applications seeking acquittal from the case. The third co-accused President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Saeed Ahmed has already filed an application before the court for his acquittal.
Ahmed, Mehmood and Rizvi were nominated as co-accused in the supplementary reference filed against Dar by the NAB. The court on April 5, 2018 had indicted the three accused.
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