LAHORE, Nov 1: A judicial magistrate on Monday granted physical remand of former state minister for defence Maj Habibullah Warraich (retired) to the Federal Investigation Agency till Nov 5.

FIA authorities had sought 15 days remand from the magistrate, but they were allowed to keep physical custody of the accused for four days with the direction to produce him on next hearing.

The FIA arrested Habibullah Warraich on Oct 31, 2010, from his residence for corruption charges besides freezing his bank accounts and confiscating his property.

Habibullah Warraich, who had been the state minister during the rule of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, was accused of embezzling Rs1.68 billion in funds of the National Insurance Corporation (NIC).

According to the prosecution, the accused had purchased state land at Rs200,000 per acre and sold it off to the NIC at Rs22,00,000 per acre, causing a loss of Rs1.68 billion to the national exchequer. The accused also defaulted on a bank loan of Rs550 million.

According to an FIA official, the judicial magistrate also granted physical remand of Akram Warraich, the brother of Habibullah Warraich, in the same case.

The FIA also issued red warrants against Mohsin Warraich, the son of Habibullah Warraich, in the corruption case.

The official said that the agency would ask the interior ministry to contact the Interpol for the arrest of Mohsin Warraich.NOTICE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif on Monday took notice of police failure to arrest killers of three youths and sought a report from the Sadar division superintendent of police investigation till Nov 3.

The chief justice took notice on a news item appeared in a section of press stating that a notorious group known as “Changar brothers” had killed three young men -- Osama, Shahzad and Hasan -- on Oct 24, 2010, in Township area but the culprits had not been arrested so far.

It said failure of police to arrest the culprits caused a sense of insecurity in the public and the accused Changar brothers were giving life threats to complainants and eye-witnesses to withdraw the case.