Court returns reference against Dar to NAB.

ISLAMABAD -- An accouAnAtAability court here on TuesAday scrapped the reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar owing to lack of jurisdiction and sent it back to the National AccountAability Bureau (NAB).

Accountability judge MuAAhammad Bashir announced the judgement on separate petitions seeking acquittal of Mr Dar, former National Bank of Pakistan president Saeed Ahmed, Naeem MehAmood and Mansoor Raza Rizvi.

The court observed that the recent amendment to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) introduced earlier this year barred it from proceeding on such references. The judge also ordered to unfreeze the properties of Mr Dar.

The court had on Dec 11, 2017 declared Mr Dar a proclaimed offender and attached his movable and immovable properties. It had also cancelled his perpetual arrest warrant upon his surrender on Oct 10.

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on July 28, 2017, while taking up petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, disqualified the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif for not disclosing his salary that he did not draw from his son's company, and constituted a joint investigation team (JIT), headed by then additional director general of the...