LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore on Tuesday fixed August 8 as the date of indictment of former minister for Railways and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique in the Paragon Housing Society case.
Meanwhile, the court extended Khawaja brothers’ judicial remand till August 8.
After appearing before the court today, Saad, in his talk to the media, said: “Whatever is happening with us, the same will happen with them [PML-N’s political rivals] after a few months.”
“We don’t want the same humiliation for Imran Khan from which PML-N and PPP have been suffering through,” he said, while urging the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to consider the charters of economy and democracy. “Instead of suppressing the opposition, try to consider the charters of economy and democracy.”
“The PML-N leadership has effectively analysed the matter of [re-election] of the chairman of the Senate and Hasil Bizenjo is a joint candidate nominated by the opposition,” he maintained, adding that his party had no personal conflict with the sitting chairman.
“He’s a good man,” he further said, while complaining about non-issuance of production orders of members of the opposition who are under the custody of the NAB in several corruption cases.
“Production orders are issued everywhere in the world where democratic norms are observed,” he concluded.
Earlier on Feb 2, the court had rejected a request made by the NAB for another extension in the physical remand of the Khawaja brothers in the case, and sent them on judicial remand.
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.
