LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday filed a reference in an accountability court against former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq, his brother former provincial minister Salman Rafiq and three others in the Paragon City scam.

The NAB accused the Khwaja brothers of wrongfully gaining Rs18.2 million approximately from M/s Paragon City (pvt) Limited in their bank accounts and they failed to account for the illegal gains.

It said Khwaja Saad in order to achieve his nefarious designs and to disguise origin of his illegitimate pecuniary benefits established a proprietorship concern namely M/s Saadan Associates whereby he wrongfully gained an amount of Rs58 million from M/s Executive Builders, a proxy of Paragon City, in last few years under the garb of services of consultancy.

Similarly, the bureau accused Khwaja Salman of same corrupt practice by establishing M/s KSR Associates and receiving Rs39 million from the M/s Executive Builders under the garb of consultancy services.

Other accused - Nadeem Zia, Umar Zia and Farhan Ali - allegedly owned the Paragon City.

The reference stated that the Khwaja brothers through their “benamidars” and with the abutment of former MPA Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia established a housing project in the name of Air Avenue.

The project was later converted into a new housing project namely Paragon City Pvt Ltd, which NAB said was an illegal society and not approved by the Lahore Development Authority.

NAB alleged that the suspects along with other accomplices cheated public at large and obtained illegal financial benefits from the funds of the illegal society.

NAB arrested the Khwaja brothers on Dec 11, 2018 after the Lahore High Court denied them further pre-arrest bail they enjoyed for almost three months.

They remained in the bureau’s custody till Feb 2 when the trial court sent them to jail on judicial remand. Their bail petitions are pending with a two-judge bench of the high court.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2019