RAWALPINDI: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar left for Tajikistan aboard a special plane from Islamabad on Friday.

Sources said that the finance minister, who departed from Islamabad at around 6am, was accompanied by three people.

When contacted, a foreign ministry official said that Mr Dar would attend the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe.

Saeed Javaid, director general (media), said that the session in which the Pakistani delegation participated concluded on Friday. He said the finance minister was expected to return sometime on Saturday or Sunday.

He said that an advance team of the Economic Affairs Division was already in Dushanbe and the finance minister joined them on Friday.

An accountability court has indicted Mr Dar in a corruption reference filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau. According to the reference, Mr Dar possesses assets beyond his declared sources of income.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2017