An accountability court in Islamabad on Monday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for PPP leader Farzana Raja in Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) corruption reference. The warrant was issued after her continuous absence from the court hearings.

Judge Asghar Ali, while hearing the case, declared the former chairperson of BISP a proclaimed offender, after she failed to appear before the court, and asked for her National Identity Card (NIC) to be blocked. The judge also directed the authorities to add her name to the Exit Control List (ECL).

It is important to mention that Farzana Raja is currently in the United States and has not appeared before the court even once since the hearing began in March, last year.

The PPP leader would be separated from the reference and the court would set a new date for her indictment, the judge said and fixed the next hearing of the case on June 14th.

Farzana Raja, along with others, is accused of embezzling Rs1.5 billion from the BISP funds on the pretext of issuing advertisements while she served as the BISP chairperson during the tenure of the PPP government from 2008 to 2013.