LAHORE: Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique and his brother Punjab Health Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique did not appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday in the Rs14bn Ashiana housing scam.

“Both brothers instead of appearing before a combined investigation team of NAB Lahore chose to send their counsel there,” an official source said. “The lawyer told the bureau that both brothers were busy in ‘official work’ (on Thursday) and they would appear next time when the NAB calls them.”

NAB summoned them to quiz in the affairs of the Paragon City that linked to the Ashiana scam. “The Paragon is developed by Saad and the company was benefited like construction of roads there through the government money,” he said.

Separately, NAB is also probing the railway minister’s role in reported illegalities and corruption in installation of modern computer-based inter-locking system between Tandu Adam and Rohri Sindh.

NAB extended the scope of its investigation into the Ashiana project. So far it has arrested five officials, including former LDA director general Ahad Cheema and a contractor, in the scam. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hasan Fawad also joined the investigation through recording their statements before a NAB team.

Cheema is accused of getting approved fraudulent and illegal request for proposal and bidding documents to grant undue and illegal benefit by awarding contract of the project of Rs14bn approximately to M/s Casa Developers, a joint venture of three firms M/s Bismillah Engineering Services Co., M/s SPARCO Construction Company and M/s China First Metallurgical Group Co. Ltd.

The Punjab Land Development Com­pany — a company owned by the government — had assigned the low-cost housing scheme of the Punjab government to the LDA through an agreement in January 2015.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2018