LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday denied the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) further physical remand of former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq and his brother former provincial minister Khwaja Salman Rafiq in Paragon City case and sent them to jail on judicial remand.

The Khwaja brothers, now, will be able to move the Lahore High Court for the grant of bail.

As the court resumed proceedings, NAB Special Prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua filed an application seeking extension in the physical remand for another 15 days.

The application carried neither any new ground nor progress in the investigation to demand further remand of the suspects, as sources told Dawn that the NAB itself had no intention to prolong the custody of the Khwaja brothers.

The application submitted for the grant of further remand was just a formality, said an official of the bureau on condition of anonymity.

The prosecutor made a halfhearted request to the court by filing the application only and did not go for any forceful verbal arguments like he did on the previous hearings.

Defence counsel Amjad Pervez was present in the court, but got no chance to oppose the bureau’s application as the judge, Syed Najamul Hassan Bokhari, took no time to reject the application and sent the suspects to jail on judicial remand.

The Khwaja brothers will be produced before the court after 14 days.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2019