Saad Rafique, Salman Rafique granted interim bail until Oct 24

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday granted interim bail to PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique in Paragon Housing scam.

A bench of the high court approved bail for the two brothers against a surety of Rs500, 000 each until Oct 24.

It issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit its response on next hearing.

Last week, the Interior Ministry on the request of the anti-graft watchdog placed the names of the former federal minister and his brother on blacklist.

Besides the two PML-N leaders, the name of Chief Executive of Paragon Housing Society Lahore Qaiser Amin Butt was also put on the blacklist.

Last month, Khawaja Saad Rafique appeared before a NAB team to answer its queries over his alleged involvement in the Paragon Housing Society corruption scandal.

NAB 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.

Shehbaz Sharif has been accused of ordering cancellation of contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal to a successful bidder, leading to the award of the contract to his favourite builder, which resulted in a loss of Rs 193 million approximately.