LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday returned the Paragon reference against Federal Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq, his brother Khwaja Salman Rafiq and others to the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for placing it before a court of competent jurisdiction following new amendments to the law.

Presiding Judge Qamaruz Zaman observed that the reference did not fall within the jurisdiction of the accountability court and [it] could not proceed with the case further as per the latest amendment to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The judge observed that the accountability court could only hear a reference having more than 100 affected persons whereas in the case in hand there were only eight persons allegedly affected by the accused.

The judge returned the reference to the chairman of the NAB for placing it before a court of competent jurisdiction without any delay.

The Khwaja brothers had also filed acquittal applications in the reference asking the court to decide the matter on merit.

However, the judge observed that the court was not competent to decide the acquittal pleas since it had no jurisdiction to proceed further in the matter.

The NAB accused the Khwaja brothers of wrongfully gaining Rs18.2 million approximately from M/s Paragon City (pvt) Limited in their bank accounts. It said both brothers through their “benamidars” and with the abetment of former MPA Qaiser Amin Butt and Nadeem Zia established Air Avenue housing society and later changed its name to avoid legal actions.

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

At a previous hearing, Butt, who had become an approver of the NAB, resiled from his previous stance against the Khwaja brothers.

He said the NAB had pressurised him to extract a statement against the suspects. He also alleged that the investigating officer himself submitted a statement on his behalf before a magistrate.

The NAB had arrested the Khwaja brothers on Dec 11, 2018 after the Lahore High Court had refused to extend their 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 post-arrest bail petitions had been dismissed by the Lahore High Court.

The Supreme Court had released them on bail in a damning judgment against the performance of the NAB.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2023