Case against Dar: Acquittal pleas of three co-accused rejected

The Accountability Court hearing corruption case against former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday rejected the petitions of three co-accused seeking acquittal from the case.
Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir on July 23 reserved his verdict on the applications filed by three co-accused including Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, directors of Dar's companies, and President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Saeed Ahmed after both parties to the case completed their arguments.
During the hearing on Friday, the Judge said the petitions of the co-accused have been dismissed.
During the previous hearing, Qazi Misbah, the counsel for Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, said that prosecution had 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 also presented details of some bank accounts.
While objecting to the defense counsel's plea, Special Prosecutor NAB Imran Shafiq said 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 court asked the prosecution to produce more witnesses in the case. The prosecution will produced three more witnesses including Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, Saeed Ahmad Khan and Qamar Zaman during the next hearing to be held on August 1.
Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi on July 12 filed their application seeking acquittal from the case. The third co-accused President NBP Saeed Ahmed had 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.