Arrest warrants for three suspects in Paragon case

LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday issued warrants for the arrest of three co-suspects in the Paragon City scam against former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq and his brother Khwaja Salman Rafiq.

The co-suspects are owners of the society including Nadeem Zia, his brother Umar Zia and Farhan Ali.

A NAB prosecutor requested the court to issue non-bailable arrest warrants of the suspects as they had not joined the proceedings despite several summons.

The presiding judge, Jawadul Hassan, issued the warrants and also directed the NAB to ensure production of the suspects on June 13.

Last week, the NAB had filed a reference against all the five suspects.

The bureau 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.

The reference stated that the Khwaja brothers through their “benamidars” and with the abetment 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 the NAB said was an illegal society and not approved by the Lahore Development Authority.

The 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.

The NAB had arrested the Khwaja brothers on Dec 11, 2018 after the Lahore High Court had 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.