LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday directed the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to decide complaints against Paragon City after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gave a clean chit to former federal minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq his brother Khawaja Salman and others in a reference of housing scheme.
A special prosecutor of the NAB submitted a report before the court saying no offence under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 had been made against the suspects in the reference.
The report said the charges of corruption had not been found true against the Khwaja brothers and there was no need to continue the proceedings in the reference.
It said Paragon City had been approved by Aziz Bhatti Town and there were only eight complainants against the housing scheme as remaining affected persons had already been allotted their plots.
It asked the court to refer the matter to the LDA to decide the complaints against Paragon City.
The court in the light of the NAB’s report referred the matter to the LDA with a direction to decide the complaints against the housing scheme.
The NAB recently reopened the reference after the Supreme Court struck down amendments in the ordinance introduced by the previous coalition government.
The trial court on March 29, 2023 returned Paragon reference to the NAB chairman for placing it before a court of competent jurisdiction following new amendments in the law.
The NAB had filed the reference against the Khwaja brothers during the regime of Imran Khan.
It accused them of wrongfully gain approximately rupees 18.2 million from M/s Paragon City (pvt) Limited in their bank accounts.
The bureau 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.
The NAB had arrested the Khwaja brothers on December 11, 2018 after the Lahore High Court refused to further extend their pre-arrest bail.
They remained in the bureau’s custody for three months.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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