The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday maintained its stay orders against auctioning of a house belonging to former finance minister Ishaq Dar. A division bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Lubna Saleem Pervaiz heard the petition of Ishaq Dar's wife, Tabassum Dar, against the auction of her house.
The bench also directed submission of the record of the case from the Accountability Court in this matter and deferred the hearing till March 18. The petitioner's lawyer, Advocate Qazi Misbah informed that the house in Gulberg, Lahore was gifted by Ishaq Dar to his wife in 1989 as "haq mehar".
He further argued that the NAB had seized the house and handed over its custody to the Punjab government for auction. Misbah told that the house was the property of Dar's wife therefore it could not be auctioned by declaring it as Ishaq Dar's assets.
The NAB prosecutor contended that the house could not be handed over to Dar's wife and opposed her claim that it was a gift to her. He pleaded that Tabassum Dar had no evidence of gift deed or any other material, which could prove that the house was gifted to her.
It was purchased by Dar in 1988 and the land department's record showed that Dar was still the owner of the said property. Previously, the court had suspended the accountability court's November 7, 2019 verdict and restrained the auction of the house till the decision on the petition.
An Accountability Court (AC) had ordered freezing the accounts of Hajveri Trust and the auction of Dar's property, after declaring him proclaimed offender due to his continuous non-appearance.
The AC on December 11, 2017, had declared Dar a proclaimed offender and ordered for attachment of his properties, as the former minister has not appeared before the court since 2017 despite repeated notices.
The NAB, therefore, seized all the Dar's moveable and immoveable assets, including a house in Gulberg III, Lahore; three plots in Al-Falah Housing Society, Lahore; six acres of land in Islamabad, a two-kanal plot in the Parliamentarians' Enclave, Islamabad; a plot in the Senate Cooperative Housing Society, Islamabad; another plot measuring two kanals and nine marlas in Islamabad, and six vehicles.
However, the AC later issued a verdict regarding unfreezing of accounts of Hajveri Foundation, directing the persons concerned to spend the money on welfare projects mentioned in the trust deed of the foundation and not for any other purposes.
According to the order, AC Judge Muhammad Bashir further directed the persons concerned that the money from the bank accounts of Hajveri Foundation should be spent only on welfare projects and not for any other purpose; otherwise operating the account for other purposes will be considered an offence within the meaning of Section 23 of the NAO 1999.
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