Saad, Salman’s bail pleas deferred

By Our Correspondent
April 19, 2019

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday deferred the hearing of bail petitions of Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to conclude arguments on the next hearing.

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A two-judge bench was hearing bail petitions filed by both brothers in Paragon housing scam case. As the hearing commenced, the court questioned the NAB prosecutor to provide evidences which could prove Khawaja brothers as the owners of Paragon City Housing project. The NAB prosecutor answered that Qaiser Amin and others had given statements that Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique were the owners of the housing project. He added that Khawaja brothers had claimed receiving money against the services rendered for marketing purposes but failed to provide evidence, whereas, legal procedures were not completed for the exchange of land in the case.

The court inquired for details of Khawajas' profession which was mentioned in their nomination papers at the time of the election. The NAB lawyer replied, "They have mentioned marketing company in their nomination papers."

The judge asked, "You should tell us about the evidences which were collected." "It seems that you don't have any of your own content," said the judge. NAB lawyer said, "We have presented Khawaja Saad Rafique's answers to the investigators as evidence. Saad Rafique had not answered the questions pertaining to the selling of the land and plots." He added that a huge amount of money was being transferred to bank accounts but no clue was present about its transmitter.

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