Saad, Salman bail pleas adjourned

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday adjourned the hearing of bail petitions of former Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman in Paragon City case.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmed heard the case. As the hearing resumed, the counsel for Khawaja brothers informed the court that he was unable to extend his arguments in the case as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had not provided the copies of the witnesses’ statements.

On this, the NAB prosecutor provided the copies to the Khawaja brothers’ counsel and the court adjourned the hearing till April 1. Khawaja brothers through their counsel had submitted that the bureau nominated them in the case without having any incriminating evidence against them.

They said they had extended full cooperation to the NAB during investigation and provided all the documents to prove that they had no link with the Paragon City Society. The applicants said they were being punished by the corruption watchdog on political grounds.

The NAB had launched an investigation into the alleged scam in November last year after a number of victims staged protest demonstrations and held a press conference at Lahore Press Club against, what they called, the housing society’s fraud.