LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday granted protective bail to MNA-elect and former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique a day before their appearance before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Both brothers were present along with their counsel Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervez before a two-judge bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi.

The Khawaja brothers are required to appear before NAB on Tuesday (today) for investigation into the Paragon City scam connected with the Ashiyana housing scheme.

The lawyers argued before the bench that the petitioners had nothing to do with the Paragon City. They said the petitioners had already provided NAB with all information required by the interrogators, but they were being summoned time and again with mala fide intention.

MNA-elect, brother to appear before NAB in housing scam today

They contended that NAB had lost its credibility and independence. Moreover, they said, since the ‘illegal’ arrest of Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, it had become a matter of public knowledge that the officials of NAB had been abusing the process of law for political reasons. They alleged that the NAB had become a stooge in the hands of the incumbent government and resorted to victimisation of political opponents.

The lawyers argued that the petitioners had apprehensions that NAB would arrest them on their appearance before its investigation team. Therefore, they asked the court to grant them protective bail so that they could approach the court of competent jurisdiction in case NAB issued their arrest warrants.

After hearing the arguments, the court granted protective bail to the petitioners till Oct 24 and directed them to deposit surety bonds of Rs500,000 each.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018