LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday extended the judicial remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique till May 16 in the Paragon Housing Society scam.
A heavy contingent of police was deployed around the court to prevent party workers from disrupting law and order situation during their appearance. The Khawaja brothers have been accused of embezzling nearly Rs2 billion.
In all previous hearings, the defence counsel had repeatedly maintained before the court that the details of banking transactions of the last ten years had been handed over to the NAB.
PARAGON SCAM:
On December 11, the anti-graft body arrested the Khawaja brothers after the Lahore High Court rejected their bail plea in the case pertaining to Paragon City housing society scam.
NAB had launched an investigation into the alleged scam in November 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.
Last month, in a major development, Qaiser Amin Butt, a director of the Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, became an approver against PML-N stalwart Khawaja Saad Rafique in the Paragon City scandal.
The Paragon City director recorded his confession before the NAB chief, in which he spilled the beans that real owners of the Paragon City were, in fact, Khawaja brothers, further revealing that they tricked people and deprived them of money.