Court adjourns Paragon graft reference hearing till Oct 02

LAHORE: Accountability Court (AC) on Saturday adjourned hearing of Paragon Housing Scheme corruption case against Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique till October 02 on a request of lawyers, ARY News reported.

The counsels pleaded to the court to defer the hearing due to the lawyers strike.

The court directed the counsels of the sides to give their arguments on Oct. 05 over a petition of defence challenging jurisdiction of the court.

The hearing was presided over by accountability court judge Jawad ul Hassan.

Khawaja Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique could not be produced before the court in today’s hearing.

The National Accountability Bureau’s prosecutor told the court that the two defendants could not be produced due to security concerns amid a strike call by the Lahore Bar.

The court issued explanation call to the SSP headquarters for failure in production of Khawaja brothers in the case hearing.

The jail officials earlier informed the court that the police authorities failed to provide security for production of Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique in hearing of the case.

In an earlier hearing, the court indicted both the PML-N leaders in the reference and provided copies of the indictment.

Khawaja Saad and Salman Rafique decided to challenge the jurisdiction of the court and didn’t accept the charges.

The Khawaja brothers, Nadeem Zia, Umar Zia, and Farhan Ali have been nominated in the reference.

According to the reference, the Khawaja brothers and Nadeem Zia owned 93.2 per cent shares in the Paragon Housing Society.

It states that the former railway minister received monetary benefits to the tune of Rs58 million from the society whereas his brother Rs39 million.