ISLAMABAD, DEC 20 (DNA) – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued stay order against the accountability court’s decision regarding issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

While hearing the petition filed by Dar’s lawyer Qausain Faisal Mufti, the high court has barred the accountability court from proceedings against Dar till January 17, 2018.

The petition filed on December 2 requested that Dar be exempted from appearing in court due to his poor health and asked the IHC to allow someone else to represent the former finance minister in court so the accountability trial against him could proceed.

Earlier this month, the anti-corruption court declared Ishaq Dar, currently seeking medical treatment in London, an “absconder” after he repeatedly failed to appear before it in a graft case linking to the Panama Papers scandal.

Dar, 67, was indicted in October in a graft case in which he is accused of making assets that were “disproportionate to his known sources of income”.

The case was filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the light of the Supreme Court order of July 28 that disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in the Panama Papers scandal.

In its case against Dar, the NAB has alleged that the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependants of an approximate amount of Rs 831.678 million.

Dar is in London since October and has been seeking treatment of an undefined heart complication at a Harley Street hospital.