Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected on Monday a plea filed by the wife of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Ishaq Dar against an accountability court’s order to put his house on auction.
In her plea, the spouse of the former finance minister who’s absconding in corruption cases said Dar had gifted the house in Lahore’s Gulberg 3 to her on Feb 14, 1989.
“I am the owner of Gulberg 3 house,” Tabassum Dar pleaded. She said the accountability court issued its order for the auction in November last year without taking her claim into consideration.
However, a two-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Saman Riffat Imtiaz dismissed her petition. A stay order regarding the house stands withdrawn after the dismissal of the plea. After the ruling, the government will be able to auction off the residence.
The Punjab government advertised the auctioning of the house. The ad said that there would be an open auction on January 28, 2020, which would allow the highest bidder to take possession of the house. The district government has set a minimum price of Rs185 million.
Dar has been absconding court proceedings since 2017 following the registration of reference against him. Later, NAB confiscated his various bank accounts worth Rs500 million and his house, spread over four kanals and seven marlas.
Earlier, The Punjab government on Friday converted former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s house in Gulberg into a Panahgah (shelter home), which will start functioning from Saturday (today).
“We have established a Panahgah at Ishaq Dar’s house we confiscated in the light of the court orders sometime ago,” Assistant Commissioner Zeeshan Nasrullah Ranjha told Dawn. “The Panahgah will become functional from Saturday,” he added.
On July 27 last year, the Lahore city district government had taken possession of about five-kanal house (7-H, Hajvery House, Gulberg III) belonging to Mr Dar after the National Accountability Bureau seized his all movable and immovable assets in connection with a corruption reference.
Last month, the Punjab government planned auctioning of Mr Dar’s Gulberg house. But it could not do so after the Islamabad High Court issued a stay order on a petition of Mr Dar’s wife.
