ISLAMABAD, December 12: Accountability court Judge Mohammad Bashir in a detailed judgement released on Wednesday regarding the status of Ishaq Dar as a proclaimed offender observed that the under-trial former finance minister does not seem to have a serious heart condition.
A day earlier, the judge had declared Dar a proclaimed offender in a corruption reference initiated against him for possessing assets beyond his sources of income after he repeatedly failed to join the trial, remaining instead in London where he has reportedly been undergoing medical treatment for a heart-related ailment.
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had submitted a new medical report and told the court told that his client was suffering from chest pain and a minor issue in a coronary artery and, therefore, could not appear in court.
The prosecution, however, had rejected Dar’s lawyer’s claims and declared that the former minister was not suffering from any medical issues because all of his medical reports presented in court differed from the other.
According to the judge’s detailed order, the medical reports submitted before the court by Dar’s lawyer do not seem to indicate that Dar is suffering from a serious cardiac ailment or that he is unfit to travel to Pakistan to appear before the courts.
“When all the medical reports are kept together, it seems that the reports of [Dr] Ranjit Deshpandi are procured with the purpose to linger on the case/reference,” the judge has said.
The detailed order says that while one report by Dr Christopher Baker states that “there was no disease of ischaemia (heart disease)”, another report, by Dr Deshpandi “is of a different opinion”.
“The accused is not appearing before the court deliberately and is avoiding execution of warrant,” the order says.
“Proclamation notice has rightly been issued,” the order says, adding, “accused has absconded in the case.”
The order notes that according to a medical report submitted by Dar’s lawyer yesterday, “the accused has a small vessel coronary artery disease” and does not require cardiac surgery. The doctor has recommended Dar to visit a spinal surgeon, the order says. “In this medical report, he (Dar) is not stopped to travel from London to Pakistan.” -Agencies
