ISLAMABAD: Wajid Zia, head of the Supreme Court-appointed JIT to probe the Sharif family’s wealth, on Monday appeared before an accountability court to record his statement in the assets reference filed against former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir conducted Dar’s trial in absentia on charges of amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income.
The judge recorded the statement of the JIT head, who has been named as a witness in the case.
Wajid Zia submitted the Volume I and IX of the JIT report to the judge.
He informed that the former finance minister’s assets were around Rs9.1 million in 1999 as per his wealth statement, which increased to Rs831.6 million in 2008-09.
He stated that Dar failed to provide any proof to the JIT to justify how his assets multiplied by leaps and bounds in a decade.
The hearing was adjourned till Feb 14 when the investigating officer of the case as well as another witness will testify against the PML-N leader.
According to the NAB reference, Dar had acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his name or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million as per the investigation conducted so far.
The anti-corruption watchdog had filed the reference against Dar in compliance with the Supreme Court July 28 verdict.
The apex court had disqualified former premier Nawaz Sharif and ordered the bureau to file corruption cases against him and members of his family in the light of the Panama JIT report.
The former finance minister had been declared a proclaimed offender over his perpetual absence from the trial proceedings.
Earlier, the IHC had permitted the accountability court to resume ex parte proceedings against Dar after discarding his plea to suspend his declaration as proclaimed offender by the accountability court in the graft reference.
