Daily Times

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday arrested former senator Waqar Ahmad Khan in connection with a multi-billion-rupee scam of the Pak-Arab Housing Scheme after the Lahore High Court (LHC) denied him one-day protective bail.

A division bench comprising Justice Farooq Haider and Justice Ali Zia Bajwa heard the petition for protective bail filed by the former senator and upheld the objection raised by the registrar’s office on it. The bench dismissed the petition, deeming it non-maintainable.

Before his arrest from the LHC premises, the accused, Waqar Ahmad Khan, remained in the courtroom for approximately four hours, while the NAB team, police, and victims of the fraud waited outside. The development comes a day after the same bench dismissed Khan’s pre-arrest bail petition, though he managed to evade arrest at that time.

Previously, an accountability court had also denied bail to the accused. However, he continued to evade arrest by NAB.

The NAB is investigating the scam related to the Pak-Arab Housing Scheme and has alleged that the suspect denied plots to people despite receiving payments from them. It claimed that the society defrauded the public by selling more files than the number of available plots.

The bureau further alleged that the former senator collected Rs10 billion from individuals who purchased files for Pak-Arab Society Phase-II, a project that was not approved by the Lahore Development Authority.