LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday postponed the indictment of former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique in reference to the Paragon City case till September 4.
Accountability Court Judge Syed Jawadul Hassan presided over the reference proceedings wherein the two Pakistan Muslim League N (PLM-N) stalwarts were produced on the expiry of their judicial remand.
The court adjourned the hearing and directed the bureau to provide readable reference documents till the next hearing after defence counsel Amjad Parvaiz submitted that some of the reference documents provided by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were unreadable.
The court extended the judicial remand of the Khawaja brothers and observed that indictment proceeding would be carried out on the next date of hearing.
Earlier, August 8 had been fixed for the indictment of the former minister and his brother, but it was deferred till Aug 20 because of a National Assembly session which coincided with the date of the hearing which Khawaja Saad Rafique had to attend.
Besides the Khawaja brothers, the reference also nominated Nadeem Zia, Umar Zia, and Farhan Ali.
NAB has alleged that the Paragon City project had not been approved by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and is therefore illegal.
The Khawaja brothers are alleged to have extracted Rs58m and Rs9m, respectively, from the society through fraudulent consultancy services.
The two leaders were arrested on Dec 11, 2018 and their bail petitions were dismissed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on June 18. They have not approached the Supreme Court on the matter yet.
