ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Ishaq Dar will return to Pakistan in the coming week, said Pakistan’s interior minister on Saturday, adding that he would “facilitate” the government’s economic team in tackling various issues.
An accountability court on Friday suspended Dar’s permanent arrest warrant until October 7, in an assets beyond known sources of income case. It ordered the country’s corruption watchdog to not arrest the former finance minister on his arrival in Pakistan.
An anti-corruption court declared Dar an absconder after the veteran politician, a close aide to three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, failed to turn up for several court hearings in 2017. Dar, who has pleaded not guilty, has said he is receiving medical treatment in London and is unable to return.
Dar’s lawyer Qazi Misbah told Arab News his client wants to attend proceedings of the case and would return to Pakistan within 15 days.
“Yes, Ishaq Dar will return [to Pakistan] within the next week, which is beginning from Monday,” Rana Sanaullah, minister for interior, said during a news conference.
“After returning he will further facilitate our economic team, which is already working very hard,” Sanaullah added. “The prime minister will also be able to resolve economic matters in a better way,” he added.”
Charges against Dar followed an investigation into the finances of former PM Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in July 2017 after the Supreme Court disqualified him for not declaring a small salary from his son’s off-shore company.
The ex-finance minister is one of Sharif’s closest political allies and Dar’s son has married Sharif’s daughter. Both men deny any wrongdoing.
During his stint as finance minister from 2013-2017, Dar was initially lauded for steering Pakistan out of a balance of payments crisis in 2013 and returning the nuclear-armed country toward a higher growth trajectory.
But in the year before he stepped down as finance minister after Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified him from office, Dar faced widespread criticism for his refusal to allow the rupee to weaken to ease macroeconomic pressures. He was also accused of eroding the central bank’s independence.