LAHORE: The accountability on Thursday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference against Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique soon.
The accountability court held proceedings of the Paragon Housing scam.
During proceedings, NAB’s investigating officer informed the court that the reference against the Khawaja brothers had been approved by the bureau’s chairman and copies would be presented in court soon.
Khawaja Salman Rafique appeared in court while Khawaja Saad Rafique was absent as he was in Islamabad to attend the National Assembly session. The court extended the judicial remand of the Khawaja brothers till June 13.
NAB has alleged that “accused Saad Rafique along with his benamidaar wife Ghazala Saad Rafique, brother Salman Rafique in association with Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia established a housing project in the name of Air Avenue which was converted into a new housing project namely M/S Paragon City Pvt Limited. Record shows that M/S Paragon City is an illegal society.”
“Accused in collusion, connivance and collaboration of Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia cheated the members of public at large and obtained illegal pecuniary benefits from the funds of said illegal housing project,” it added.
Further, it stated, “Accused is operating this illegal housing project through his associates/ co-accused persons who are collecting deposits from general public despite clear directions from LDA that this project is unapproved.”
“Accused has been and is continuously obtaining illegal/ illegitimate funds/ benefits from said project as he obtained 40 kanal plots in his own name and the name of his brother Salman Rafique.”
The press release continued, “Accused by misusing his official position continued the expansion and marketing of illegal housing project and also obtained undue benefits in the form of sale of numbers of commercial plots worth billions of rupees which were actually not owned by M/S Paragon City. Thus the buyers have been cheated through this action of corruption and corrupt practices.
