ISLAMABAD, Nov 07 (INP): An Islamabad accountability court rejected on Thursday a request to stop former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s assets from being auctioned off.

Dar, a senior PML-N leader, is currently in London. A court had ordered his assets to be seized and then auctioned off after he failed to appear for several hearings in a corruption case against him.

NAB will be auctioning off his assets, including Hajvery House, Dar’s Gulberg III H Block property that is spread over four kanals, three plots in Lahore’s Al-Falah Housing Society, six acres in Mauza Milot, a two-kanal plot in Islamabad’s Parliamentarian Enclave, three Land Cruisers, two Mercedes Benz and one Toyota Corolla.

The request was filed by Dar’s wife Tabassum Ishaq Dar. She had earlier filed a request against NAB seizing Hajvery House, claiming it was her property. She said Dar had gifted it to her, however, the court ruled that the house belonged to the finance minister and therefore would also be seized.

Interpol recently gave Dar a clean chit. It has denied the Interior Ministry’s request for a red warrant or red notice to be issued in his name. A red notice would essentially mean that Interpol would extradite Dar back to Pakistan.

But after reviewing evidence submitted by Dar, the international police agency has cleared him. It has issued him a letter saying that he is not subject to an Interpol notice or diffusion, therefore clearing him in any case.

In 2017, his lawyer, Khawaja Haris, told Islamabad’s accountability court that after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, Dar had travelled to Jeddah where he fell ill and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. He has been in London ever since, despite cases being heard against him in the court.

He is being investigated in Pakistan for owning more assets than his known sources of income.

INP/AJ/LK