Accountability Court To Hold Hearing Of Paragon Housing Scam

An accountability court on Saturday is expected to resume hearing of the Paragon Housing Society scam case in which Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader and Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Khwaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique have been accused of embezzling nearly Rs2 billion.

Reportedly, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials will produce the Khwaja brothers before the court for another extension in their physical remand.

Earlier, their remand was extended till Feb 2 (today).

Meanwhile, a heavy contingent of police has been deployed around the court to prevent party workers from disrupting law and order situation.

In previous hearing, the Khwaja brothers’ counsel for the defence told the court that details of transactions of the last ten years had been handed over to the NAB.

However, the 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 Nadim Zia, and 20 plots were owned by the Khwaja brothers.

On December 11, 2018, they were detained by the accountability watchdog after the Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected their bail plea.

The NAB had launched an investigation into the alleged scam in November last year after a number of victims staged protests and held a press conference at the Lahore Press Club against what they termed the housing society’s fraud.