LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday extended judicial remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique till July 16 in the Paragon Housing Society scam.
According to details, Justice Syed Najamul Hassan presided over the hearing during which the court directed to launch proceedings to declare co-accused Nadeem Zia, Umar, and Farhan Ali as proclaimed offenders.
Meanwhile, a heavy contingent of police was deployed around the court to prevent PML-N workers from disrupting law and order situation during the lawmakers’ 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.
However, NAB’s prosecutor had informed the court that according to records of the Paragon Housing Society an amount of Rs2 billion was transferred to sons of Salman Rafique and Nadeem Zia.
Moreover, the Khawaja brothers are also accused of embezzlement in the scheme by exchanging 50 kanals of their land for 20 two-kanal plots each owned by the Paragon City.
On April 26, NAB Lahore approved the filing of a reference against the Khawaja brothers and Nadeem Zia for the alleged corruption in the same case.
The decision was taken in a regional board meeting that was attended by NAB Lahore’s director general and other directors.
According to the handout, Qaiser Amin Butt, the director of Paragon Housing Society, was also included in the inquiry initiated by the NAB, and he was also arrested in November last year. Later, he agreed to turn approver against the Khawaja brothers and Zia.
Butt and Zia established a company, namely Air Avenue, in the year 2003, however, the name was later changed to Paragon City (Pvt) Limited.