LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has initiated another probe against former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafique and his brother former Punjab health minister Khwaja Salman Rafique for possessing assets beyond their known sources of income.

The Khwaja brothers are already in the NAB Lahore custody in connection with the Paragon City Housing Society scam on physical remand.

“The NAB has started another probe against the Khwaja brothers for possessing assets beyond known sources of their income. Besides, the bureau is also looking into some contracts of buying locomotives during the tenure of Saad Rafique as the railways minister,” a source told Dawn on Monday.

The source said the NAB may summon Saad Rafique’s first wife Ghazala, as she was one of the partners in Paragon City.

The NAB claimed that Saad, through his benamidar wife Ghazala, and brother Salman in association with Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia had established a housing project in the name of Air Avenue that was converted into a new project, namely M/s Paragon City Pvt Ltd.

“Record shows that Paragon City is an illegal society. The suspect in collaboration with Zia and Butt cheated the members of public at large and obtained illegal pecuniary benefits from the funds of said illegal housing project. Saad Rafique is operating this illegal housing project through the co-accused persons who are collecting deposits from general public despite clear directions of the Lahore Development Authority that this project is unapproved. The suspect has been continuously obtaining illegal/illegitimate funds/benefits from the said project, as he obtained 40-kanal plots in his own name and in the name of his brother (Salman),” the bureau alleged.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2018