Ishaq Dar surrenders before accountability court

An accountability court in Islamabad has sent a notice to the NAB court on a petition seeking cancellation of perpetual arrest warrants against PML-N stalwart and newly-elected Senator and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Dar who had been living in exile in the United Kingdom for the last four years and ended his self-imposed banishment on Monday night surrendered himself before the accountability court on Wednesday. 

During the hearing, the accountability court issued a notice to the NAB seeking its reply on Dar’s petition challenging the perpetual arrest warrants against him on Oct 7. 

Dar accompanied by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah appeared before the court of Judge Muhammad Bashir hardly an hour after he took oath as federal finance minister at Aiwan-e-Sadr today. 

Court heard a NAB reference relating to assets beyond means against Dar in which his perpetual arrest warrants had been issued.

Talking to newsmen outside the court, Dar said despite his ill-health he wanted to return to Pakistan but the Imran Khan-led government had cancelled his passport. He alleged that country’s missions across the world had been stopped by the PTI government from issuing him a passport. 

“But the new government has issued me a fresh passport thus enabling me to return to Pakistan,” he added. 

Dar asserted that a false case was registered against him. 

Hitting out at PTI government for destroying Pakistan’s economy during last four years, Dar regretted that even an enemy could not inflict such a huge damage on Pakistan as the PTI government had inflicted. Our economy has been shattered, he rued. 

He underlined the need to put the politics aside and work unitedly for the national interests ‘as the country has been passing through its worst period’. 

Later, talking to media on his arrival at Finance Ministry, Dar said that when the PML-N had left government in 2018, our economy was booming. Despite PTI’s sit-ins, the country had been making progress by leaps and bounds during PML-N regime, he added. 

“In 2013, we had saved the country from default,” Dar boasted while alluding to the recent ascent of Pakistani rupee in the money market against the US dollar on the back of the news that he was going to handle the economy. 

He lamented that before the PTI government, Pakistan had been emerging as a strong economic force but their successor failed to sustain the boom. 

"We will not let anyone play with the country’s economy," Dar said resolutely. 

Reporter Ehtisham Kiyani