Khwaja brothers likely to be indicted on Aug 8

LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday extended judicial remand of PML-N leaders – Khwaja Saad Rafique and Khwaja Salman Rafique, accused in Paragon housing scam, till August 8 after handing over the copies of the reference against them.

Both accused brothers are likely to be indicted on the next hearing date, August 8. The jail authorities produced both accused before the court where they were handed over copies of the reference against them.

The NAB officials informed the court that it had begun the process to declare Nadeem Zia, Umar Zia and Farhan as absconders. As per the reference, NAB claims that the Khwaja brothers were real owners of theParagon City housing project. It stated that one Qaiser Amin Butt, the main accused in the Paragon Housing scam, voluntarily disclosed the facts related to the commission of offence and requested for pardon under Section 26 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (NAO 1999), which was granted by the competent authority.

NAB had filed a reference against Kh Saad Rafique, Kh Salman Rafique, Nadeem Zia Pirzada, his son Umar Zia and Farhan Ali. NAB stated that Saad Rafique, in connivance with his wife Ghazala Saad Rafique, his brother Salman Rafique, Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia, started a housing project namely Air Avenue, which was an illegal housing society.

Later it was converted into M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Ltd. Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique, in connivance with Nadeem Zia and Qaiser Amin Butt, defrauded a large number of members of the housing society. Saad opened a company, Executive Builders, in his and his wife’s name, and later converted it into Paragon and withdrew a large sum of amount from the account of Executive Builders.

The Khwaja brothers embezzled the funds of illegal housing society for personal gains, and collected heavy amounts despite clear directions from the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) that the society was illegal.

Moreover, the Khwaja brothers wrongfully received Rs18.2 million from Paragon City in their accounts. NAB further stated that Kh Saad Rafique established a firm, namely Saadain Associates, and wrongfully gained Rs58 million from M/s Executive Builders. Also, Kh Salman Rafique established a firm namely KSR Associates, and wrongfully gained Rs39 million from M/s Executive Builders, which was a proxy concern of M/s Paragon City.

NAB claimed that Khwaja brothers owned 93.6 per cent shares of the Paragon City, while Qaiser Amin Butt owned only 7.4 per cent shares of the project. Khawaja Saad Rafique, after the hearing, while talking to the media, warned the government that what was happening to them would also happen to them after few months. He said they did not want to treat as badly Imran Khan as the PML-N and the PPP were being treated by him. He advised the incumbent government to ponder on the charter of democracy and charter of economy instead of victimising the opposition. Saad said that nomination of Senate chairman was a well-thought-out decision of the PML-N.