Saad Rafique, brother presented before accountability court

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday presented former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother former Punjab health minister Khawaja Salman Rafique before an accountability court here to obtain their physical remand. 

NAB officials brought both brothers to the court amid tight security. Special security arrangements have been made with a strong contingent of security personnel deployed at the court to avoid any untoward incident.

Yesterday, NAB officers arrested the PML-N leaders after the Lahore High Court dismissed their bail pleas in the Paragon housing society scam.

During the course of the hearing, the NAB prosecutor requested the two-judge bench of the LHC headed by Justice Tariq Abbasi to dismiss the Khawaja brothers’ bail.

He argued that the Bureau was conducting an investigation against them as per the law, adding that they were linked to the Paragon Housing Society scam.

He said the brothers had also admitted to taking millions of rupees as commission. He quoted one of the accused as saying that Saad would come to every meeting of the society to issue people allotment letters.

The Khawaja brothers’ lawyer, however, rejected the allegations against his clients, saying only 6 per cent of the total profit was taken by them which they had declared in tax returns.

NAB had launched the investigation into the scam in November this year after a number of victims staged protests and held a press conference at the Lahore Press Club against what they termed housing society’s fraud.

Qaiser Amin Butt, a director of the Paragon Housing Society, was arrested last month and agreed to become an approver and recorded his statement before the chairman NAB.

Sources said that Qaiser, who is a close friend of Khawaja Saad Rafique, revealed that Paragon Society was not approved by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and Khawaja brothers were the beneficial owners of the housing scheme.

He further disclosed that Paragon City Director Nadeem Zia was responsible for all transactions and Khawaja brothers used to receive all money in cash, sources added.

Paragon Society was not approved by the Lahore Development Authority and Khawaja brothers were the beneficial owners of the society, Qaiser had revealed.

The post Saad Rafique, brother presented before accountability court appeared first on ARYNEWS.

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