Court restrains NAB from arresting Saad Rafique, brother until Dec 5

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday granted extension in interim bail of former railways minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique, in a corruption case until December 5, ARY News reported.

The extension was ordered by the LHC Judge Justice Tariq Abbasi. The petitioner, who is the ex-minister himself, claimed in his plea that he was not involved in any corruption and cooperated with the probe team to the core.

He requested the court to accept extension in pre-arrest bail.

Deputy Prosecutor General NAB, Chaudhry Khaliquz Zaman, told the court that arrest orders of the PML-N leader had already been issued.

The court sought the arrest orders, to which, NAB official replied that they were in bureau’s Lahore office. The LHC judge expressed resentment and said the NAB team didn’t look serious to nab the person it was investigating.

The court later granted extension in the interim bail.

PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique are under NAB investigation in Paragon Housing scam.

In the first week of October, the Interior Ministry on the request of the anti-graft watchdog had placed the names of the former federal minister and his brother on blacklist. The name of Chief Executive of Paragon Housing Society Lahore Qaiser Amin Butt was also put on the blacklist.

AB had launched an investigation into the scandal after protests by dozens of victims against the housing society fraud.

Former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Cheema and others are in custody over allegations of corruption against them in Ashiana Iqbal Housing Society scam.