ISLAMABAD: While not directly criticising the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan, Minister for Privatisation Daniyal Aziz claimed on Tuesday that the order of freezing of assets of the finance minister was a futile exercise because Ishaq Dar did not possess them.

“International rating agencies have lauded Pakistan’s economy, but what they are doing with a man who brought the country out of shambles to an emerging economy,” Mr Aziz wondered while addressing a media conference at the Press Informa­tion Department here.

Giving details of property and bank accounts holdings of Mr Dar, he said that the freezing order of the accountability court contained “irrelevant details”.

“Of six bank accounts mentioned in the freezing order, three accounts have been dormant for several years with Rs13, Rs232 and Rs1,900 still remaining in these three accounts,” the document provided by Mr Aziz showed.

He said the assets freezing order was nothing short of punishment to Mr Dar who brought the economy out of crisis and it had been acknowledged by international rating agencies like the Standard and Poor’s as well as the World Bank.

He referred to seven properties of Mr Dr listed in the freezing order by the accountability court and claimed that only one property in Lahore was still owned by him, while the rest had been disposed of over the past two decades.

About six vehicles listed in the order, he said four had been disposed of and only two vehicles were now owned by Mr Dar.

Mr Aziz said that all assets and investments of Mr Dar outside the country listed in the freezing order had been disposed of by 2008-09 except a partly-paid villa in the UAE that was gifted to children by Mr Dar in 2010-11.

He said the worth of the villa had been wrongly stated as 101.87 million UAE dirhams in the NAB reverence/charge sheet and the actual amount was 10.18 million UAE dirhams, according to the wealth statement filed by Mr Dar in the ECP in 2010.

Mr Aziz called upon the Supreme Court to open Volume 10 of the JIT report and said “there is no need to send teams abroad and instead you should tell the masses what is in Volume 10 and what are you hiding”.

He accused Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan of derailing the country’s growing economy and equating the PTI with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan said Mr Khan was creating chaos in the country.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2017