Daily Times

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has extended the interim bail of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique in Wednesday’s hearing session.

According to details, the LHC resumed the hearing regarding interim bail of the Khawaja Brothers in Paragon Housing scam, further directing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to not arrest them.

During the hearing, the two-judge bench asked the brothers in offence, “Did you submit a petition for NAB director general to be changed?”

At this, the NAB prosecutor informed the court, “NAB chairman has heard both the petitioners and a decision will be taken in this regard within the next one to two days.”

The bench asked the NAB prosecutor to make their arrest warrants a part of the record. “Even during the last hearing, you did not make it a part of the court record,” the judge said.

The court then extended Saad and Salman’s bail until December 11 and ordered NAB to not arrest the two until the next hearing. Earlier on November 26, the LHC extended the interim bail of former ministers Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique in Paragon Housing Society scandal until December 5.

LHC after extended the bail granted to PML-N’s Saad and Salman, directed NAB to decide immediately on the basis of law whether a team probing them will be changed or not.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Tariq Abbasi heard the case over anticipatory arrest in Paragon Housing Society Scandal.

In the petition, the brothers said that they were not involved in any form of corruption. “We fully cooperated with NAB in the investigation and our pre-arrest bail should be approved,” the petition stated. The bench then asked the NAB lawyer whether documents pertaining to the arrest had been given to the Khawaja brothers to which he replied, “The documents will be given when they are arrested.”

Expressing anger over his response, the bench questioned, “Can those documents not even be shared with the court?”

At this, the NAB lawyer said, “The documents related to the arrest are at the NAB office.”

The bench then questioned whether the Khawaja brothers were present in court and was told that they are. The brothers then told the court, “We fear that NAB will arrest us.” The bench also directed the NAB chairman to make a decision immediately in keeping with the law on the brothers’ petition to change the team probing them.

NAB officials said that there are three inquiries ongoing against Saad pertaining to the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme, Paragon Housing scam and corruption in Pakistan Railways.

After hearing arguments of the respondents’ counsel, the bench extended the bail granted to the Khawaja brothers.

Earlier, in 2017, NAB had launched its investigation into a mega land scam involving then railways minister Saad’s Paragon Housing Society in Lahore and the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC).

The bureau had decided to initiate probe into the matters of Saad’s housing society after receiving a number of complaints regarding an illegal deal involving 3,000 kanals of government land between the PLDC and the said companies.

Salman is a former health minister.

Published in Daily Times, December 6^th 2018.