Former prosecutor NAB terms Dar’s ascension to the helm of finance ministry a collective failure

The dramatic return of Senator Ishaq Dar, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and a Proclaimed Offender (PO), to the throne of the country’s finances has raised many questions about the country’s accountability regime.

The incumbent Finance Minister, Dar, was nominated to lead the country’s struggling economy on September 27, 2022, in London. He was the same person indicted on the same day five years ago in an Rs831 million corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the Supreme Court’s direction in the Panama Papers case.

According to the NAB reference, “the accused acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his name and/or in the names of his dependents totaling Rs831.678 million based on the investigation conducted thus far.”

Dar’s assets, according to the Bureau, were “disproportionate to known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account.”

After announcing the date of indictment, accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir stated, “The court intends to conduct daily hearings in the reference so that the trial is concluded within the stipulated time of six months.”

The accountability court observed in September 2017 that it was required by the Supreme Court to conclude the trial within six months, but the accused flew out of the country in the plane of the then-prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Dar, on the other hand, was declared a proclaimed offender by the accountability court on November 21, 2017, due to his continued absence. A few days ago, accountability judge Muhammad Bashir suspended the former fiancé minister’s arrest warrants until October 7. The court also barred NAB from arresting Dar, giving him the opportunity to surrender in front of the court.

In September 2017, the embattled former finance minister left the country just as the NAB decided to reopen the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference against him. The Hudaibiya reference could be the Bureau’s second “mega-corruption” case against Dar, following the reference filed against him in the aftermath of the Panama Papers decision.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed by the apex court to investigate the Panama Papers allegations against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members recommended that the case against Dar be reopened.

Dar reportedly submitted his confessional statement regarding money laundering before a magistrate in the Hudaibiya paper mills case on April 25, 2000. In it, Dar admitted to laundering $14.86 million and opening two bank accounts for Nawaz Sharif’s brother under the names Sikandar Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi.

On July 28, 2017, a five-member Supreme Court bench ordered NAB to file three references against Nawaz Sharif and one against Dar, in response to petitions filed by Imran Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Siraj ul Haq of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed of the Awami Muslim League.

Former prosecutor NAB Raja Aamir Abbas, on the other hand, commented on Dar’s return, saying, “It is not the failure of NAB, but of society as a whole. It’s a collective failure.”

He told Bol News that it was quite unfortunate to see our entire society deteriorating in every aspect with each passing day. The former prosecutor, NAB, claimed Dar had returned to the country after striking a deal with the powers that be.

“In London, only Nawaz Sharif remains. The former Prime Minister should now return to the country because no one is left to question these individuals about their alleged corruption and corrupt practises.”

Abbas was of the view that no court would have suspended the arrest warrants of an ordinary accused who had been a PO for nearly five years, but this was done in the case of Dar. He claimed that when the current regime was “installed” in April of this year, roughly 60 per cent of cabinet members were on bail in various corruption and other cases.

In response to a question, the lawyer stated that the entire NAB ordinance has been amended solely to handle cases involving the ruling coalition.

Mr. Abbas defined the establishment as people from the judiciary, army, politicians, and bureaucrats, and blamed them for the country’s overall mess over the last seven decades.

In response to another question, the former prosecutor said that people had to decide their own fate because, aside from a few politicians, no one was fighting for their rights.

On the other hand, shortly after taking oath as finance minister for the fourth time, Ishaq Dar said that he had no passport for the last four years because the PTI government had cancelled it while he was receiving medical treatment in London. He stated that the central government of Shehbaz Sharif issued him a passport a few weeks ago, after which he began his travel plans.

“The NAB case against me is completely bogus, as the Bureau claimed I hadn’t filed tax returns in two decades (1981 to 2001). But the truth is that I’ve been filing tax returns for the past 40 years.”

“There was no truth in the allegations, only the worst political victimisation,” Dar claimed, adding that this was the primary reason the PTI government was unable to extradite him from London. Dar, rejecting any deal or arrangement, maintained that he was returning to the country only to save it from financial ruin.