ProPropertyNewsParagon City Scandal: Accountability Court Seeks NAB’s Reply in Acquittal Pleas

Paragon City Scandal: Accountability Court Seeks NAB’s Reply in Acquittal Pleas

LAHORE: On Wednesday, an accountability court sent notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding the Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq and his brother, former Minister Salman Rafiq, who had requested their acquittals in the Paragon City reference.

According to the petitions submitted through Attorney Amjad Pervez, the reference against the petitioners was brought out of political motivations and with ill will.

It claimed that none of the prosecution’s witnesses made an unfavorable comment about the Khwaja brothers, and therefore it was requested from the court to acquit the reference.

The court responding to the plea has instructed the NAB’s special prosecutor to submit the response by Thursday (today).

The Khwaja brothers were charged by the NAB with fraudulently obtaining around Rs. 18.2 million from M/s Paragon City in their bank accounts.

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According to the report submitted by NAB, the Khwaja brothers also established the Air Avenue housing project with the help of two former MPAs, Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia, and other “benamidars.”

The report also claimed that the accused and their allies defrauded the general public and profited unlawfully from the assets of the illegal society.

It is to note here that the Khwaja brothers were taken into custody by the NAB on December 11, 2018, after the Lahore High Court denied a request to prolong the 3-month pre-arrest bail they had been granted.

Furthermore, the trial court then sent them to jail on judicial remand on February 2, 2019. They remained in the custody of the NAB until they were granted bail by the Supreme Court.

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