An accountability court on Saturday extended physical remand of former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique till February 2 in the Paragon Housing Society case.
The extension in physical remand of Rafique and his brother was given on request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The court had also granted a week-long extension in remand of the siblings on Jan 19.
Accountability court judge Syed Najmul Hassan conducted hearing of the case.
On January 5, the court extended the physical remand of the duo by 14 days. The Khawaja brothers are currently being investigated by the anti-graft watchdog for accumulating wealth beyond known sources of income.
Rafique and his brother were arrested on December 11 after the Lahore High Court rejected their bail plea. During that hearing, the former minister’s counsel had informed the court that his client had nothing to do with PAS and was being framed in the case.
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 the fraud committed by the housing society.
Last year, the anti-graft authority arrested former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Khan Cheema and others over allegations of corruption in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Society scam.
During that investigation, 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.
Published in Daily Times, January 27th 2019.
