LAHORE – An accountability court in Lahore granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 10-day physical remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique.
Tight security arrangements were put in place when the Khawajas were produced before the NAB court in connection with the Paragon Housing Society scam, with party loyalists raising slogans against the detention of the leaguers.
‘Tera bhai, mera bhai, Saad Bhai Saad bhai,’ was one of the slogans raised outside the court premises in a show of support to the politician.
NAB had presented the brothers in the accountability court and requested their 15-day physical remand, however, the court approved the request for 10 days.
The politicians would be produced before the court again on December 22nd.
The duo was arrested from the Lahore High Court a day earlier after their interim bail was not extended by the court.
The brothers are under the radar of NAB in the Paragon Housing Society scam located in Lahore.
During the last hearing, the bureau’s prosecutor said that NAB was conducting its investigation against the Khawaja brothers on the basis of the law and added that they were ‘certainly’ linked to the Paragon Housing Society; Saad Rafique denies any links with the private housing society.
“Rafique’s wife had partnered with Qaisar Amin Butt in the housing scheme, and that the brothers had received money from the housing society,” the prosecutor alleged.
The prosecutor claimed that the Khawaja brothers have admitted that they took millions of rupees as commission adding that Saad’s brother-in-law was also a partner in the society.
“If money is earned through illegal means and still mentioned in tax returns, it doesn’t make it legitimate,” he contended before the bench.
The NAB prosecutor argued that in a statement given to NAB, Shahid Butt, another accused, had alleged that Saad attended every meeting and issue people allotment letters.
On the occasion, Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar, the brothers’ counsel informed the court that their clients had not skipped even one of the hearings.
