Earlier on December 12, accountability court granted physical remand of former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother former Punjab health minister Khawaja Salman Rafique until Dec 22 in a case related to the Paragon Housing Society scam.
According to details, NAB officials brought both the brothers to the court amid tight security today. Special security arrangements were made with a strong contingent of security personnel deployed at the court to avoid any incident.
The NAB prosecutor requested the AC to grant their physical remand for 15 days as their custody was required for further investigation into the case.
The judge, however, remanded the PML-N leaders in NAB custody for ten days and directed the Bureau to provide all basic facilities to them.
Saad Rafique complained to the judge that medicines are not being provided to him properly as he is unwell. He added whether one is guilty or not will be determined later but they should not be meted out inhuman treatment at least for now.At this, the judge directed the prosecutor to submit a written assurance that the suspects will be provided with all facilities.
The Khawaja brothers’ lawyer contended that his clients had nothing to do with the Paragon society as no connection between them and the housing project had been established over 15 years.
Earlier on December 11, officials from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique after Lahore High Court rejected their bail plea.
The LHC had earlier granted the brothers pre-arrest bail and they had appeared before NAB multiple times for questioning in connection to the case.
NAB had launched an investigation into the alleged scam after dozens of victims staged protests and held a press conference at the Lahore Press Club against the housing society’s fraud.
The bureau had arrested former LDA director general Ahad Khan Cheema and others over allegations of corruption in Ashiana Iqbal Housing Society scam.During investigations, it was revealed that Cheema had misused his authority and received huge sums of money in return for awarding the contract of the project to Casa Developers.
The amount was paid from the account of the Paragon Housing Society.
Further, the two-judge bench also heard Rafique brothers’ petition to transfer their case from NAB DG Lahore Saleem Shahzad.Last month, the PML-N leader had requested NAB chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to transfer their case to another bureau as Shahzad was “no longer an independent person” and could not be trusted to conduct a transparent inquiry.
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