LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday approved the transitory remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique for seven days in the Paragon Housing Society case, ARY News reported.
The National Accountability Court (NAB) had pleaded to the court to extend his remand from January 20 to 26.
The anti-graft body also said the National Assembly had issued a production order for the PML-N leader and therefore he should be allowed to attend the session.
It is pertinent to note that the 14-day remand of Khawaja brothers expired on Jan 19.
On January 5, the court extended the physical remand of the siblings by 14 days. The Khawaja brothers are currently being investigated by the anti-graft watchdog for accumulating wealth beyond known sources of income.
Rafique and his brother were arrested on December 11 after the Lahore High Court rejected their bail plea. During that hearing, the former minister’s counsel had informed the court that his client had nothing to do with PAS and was being framed in the case.
NAB had launched an investigation into the alleged scam in November last year after a number of victims staged protests and held a press conference at the Lahore Press Club against the fraud committed by the housing society.
Last year, the anti-graft authority arrested former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Khan Cheema and others over allegations of corruption in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Society scam.
During that investigation, it was revealed that Cheema had misused his authority and received huge sums of money in return for awarding the contract of the project to Casa Developers.
The amount had been allegedly paid from the account of the Paragon Housing Society.
