An accountability court on Saturday extended physical remand of Khwaja Saad and his brother Khwaja Salman for another 14 days in Paragon City Housing Society scam and directed the NAB to produce them again on January 19. Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced the two brothers before the court to seek extension in their remand.
The NAB prosecutor told the court that billions of rupees had been found transferred from the housing society's account to the accounts of sons of Salman Rafiq and Nadeem Zia, director of the society. He said over a dozen bank accounts of the housing society were under scrutiny for suspicious transactions pointed out by the State Bank of Pakistan. He said the NAB would also investigate Gufran Rafiq, son of Salman Rafiq, while notices had also been issued to over 30 individuals to join the investigation. The prosecutor demanded another 15-days remand to complete the investigation.
The defence counsel opposing further remand said the NAB had nothing new to investigate and prosecutor stated nothing except repeating the arguments of previous hearing.
In this case, the NAB alleged that Saad Rafiq through his "benamidar" wife Ghazala Saad, his brother Salman Rafiq, former MPA Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia established a housing project. It said the record showed that the Paragon City was an illegal society and not approved by the Lahore Development Authority.
The NAB further alleged that the suspects along with other accomplices cheated public at large and obtained illegal financial benefits from the funds of the illegal society.