LHC approves Saad, Salman Rafique’s protective bail till Oct 24

LAHORE (92 News) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday approved protective bail of PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique in Paragon Housing scam. A bench of the high court approved bail for the two brothers against a surety of Rs500, 000 each until October 24. It issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit its response on next hearing. During the hearing, the plaintiff adopted the stance that all the required data has already been submitted in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). However, it is feared that the Khawaja brothers would be arrested by the top accountability watchdog, it stated. Meanwhile, the court barred NAB from detaining the ex-ministers till October 24 and issued notices in this regard. Earlier, Islamabad High Court (IHC) had rejected an application requesting for a protective bail for Khawaja Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique. Last week, the Interior Ministry on the request of the anti-graft watchdog placed the names of the former federal minister and his brother on blacklist. Besides the two PML-N leaders, the name of Chief Executive of Paragon Housing Society Lahore Qaiser Amin Butt was also put on the blacklist. NAB had launched an investigation into the scandal after protests by dozens of victims against the housing society fraud. Former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Cheema and others are in custody over allegations of corruption against them in Ashiana Iqbal Housing Society scam.