ISLAMABAD: Finance Min­ister Ishaq Dar will skip the annual meetings of the boards of governors of the World Bank group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in view of a corruption case against him being heard by an accountability court, informed sources told Dawn on Saturday.

The annual meetings will be held from Oct 9 to 15, whereas the next hearing of Mr Dar’s case is scheduled for Oct 12.

This will be the first time since 2013 that Mr Dar will not represent Pakistan at the joint annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF. Finance Secretary Shahid Mahmood would instead lead the Pakistani delegation, which would include the State Bank governor, the sources said.

An accountability court indicted Mr Dar last month in a reference pertaining to his owning “assets beyond his known sources of income”.

The meetings will bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamen­tarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organisations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.

The event includes meetings of the Development Comm­ittee, the International Monetary and Financial Com­mittee, the Group of Ten, the Group of 24, and various other constituencies.

The annual meetings will also include a day of plenary sessions, in which governors take up matters of business and consult with each other. At the meetings, the boards of governors make decisions on how current international monetary issues should be addressed and approve corresponding resolutions.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2017