January 18, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1423

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LAHORE, Jan 17: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to contest the plea of Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, seeking his exemption for the time being from personal appearance in a wilful default reference.

The Punjab director-general of NAB has forwarded a letter to prosecutor S.M Nazim, directing him to contest the application during the proceedings of the reference fixed for Saturday, Dawn learnt here on Friday.

The prosecution had been issued notice on the application for exemption moved by the accused on the last hearing. The reference would be taken up by the newly-appointed judge following the expiry of his predecessor’s service contract last week.

Defence counsel Khwaja Harris confirmed on Friday that his client would not appear for Saturday’s proceedings and the application would be argued upon in his absence, in case it was taken up by the judge.

The prosecutor told Dawn that the strongest contention of the prosecution would be that the application should have been filed by the accused himself instead of filing it through his counsel and was not maintainable on these ground.

Faisal has not appeared before the court after taking oath as interior minister. He appeared twice in this reference since his return to the National Assembly in October last.

Oct 29, 2000, was the last date when the minister appeared before the court and had been seeking exemption on every subsequent hearing. In the last week of December, he finally filed an application requesting the court to dispense with his personal appearance for the time being owing to his official engagements in Islamabad.

He did not mention any specific period of time during which he wanted to be exempted. The name of advocate Sadia Malik was proposed as his pleader in the application.

Some seven prosecution witnesses have been recorded, so far, in the reference which was filed on Feb 13, 2000. The proceedings of the reference remained stagnant for one year from February 2001 to February 2002, when he stayed abroad on medical grounds.

The court had refused to accept his medical reports sent from abroad, saying that he had not obtained permission from it for leaving abroad and had no excuse to stay there on medical reasons.

In this reference, Faisal, along with his nine family members, has been accused of committing default to the tune of Rs241.07 million in the payment of a loan obtained in the name of Shah Jewna Textile Mills in 1991.