Court returns Paragon City reference against Khawaja brothers to NAB.

LAHORE -- An accountability court on Wednesday returned the Paragon City reference against Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The court held that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction as per amended National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 2022.

Accountability Court Judge Qamar-uz-Zaman announced the verdict on acquittal applications, filed by the Khawaja brothers. The court had reserved its verdict on the applications after hearing arguments of the parties, earlier in the day.

During the proceedings, Khawaja brothers' counsel Advocate Amjad Parvaiz advanced arguments on acquittal applications of his clients and submitted that the reference had been filed with a mala fide intention and on political grounds.

He submitted that his clients were neither shareholders nor sponsors or directors of the Paragon society. He submitted that there was no chance of proving their guilt in the matter. He submitted that the court had recorded the statements of a number of prosecution witnesses but so far, no witness gave an adverse statement against his clients.

He submitted that after the new amendment, the case did not fall within the jurisdiction of the NAB and the accountability court since the amount involved in the reference was less than Rs 500 million. He submitted that the society had settled its matters with a majority of the affectees whereas a total amount of Rs 58 million of eight affectees was still disputed. He pleaded with the court to accept the acquittal applications of his...