The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday summoned Federal Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique and his younger brother, Punjab Health Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique, in connection with the Paragon Housing Scheme ‘corruption’ case.

Saad has been asked to appear before the accountability court on June 21, whereas Salman has been asked to appear on June 22.

NAB had launched an investigation in November last year into a mega land scam involving Khwaja Saad Rafique’s Paragon Housing Society in Lahore and the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC).

The bureau had written to the PLDC to submit record regarding its project – Ashiana Iqbal Lahore – for which a contract agreement was signed between the PLDC and Anhui Construction Engineering Group owned by Director Paragon Exchange Ali Sajjad, Bismillah Engineering Company owned by the chief executive of Paragon City Nadeem Zia and Sparco Group.

In April this year, NAB’s Lahore chapter sought an explanation from the brothers regarding “exchange of their 50-Kanal piece of land with ‘developed plots’ measuring 40 Kanal in Paragon Housing Society through an agreement.

Terming the deal ‘dubious’ as such a practice is not a routine in land exchange matters, the NAB has not since received a reply from the Khwaja brothers.