Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad (Left) and Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique (Right) appeared before the National Accountability Bureau for two different inquiries on Thursday.

 

LAHORE: Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad and Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in two different inquiries on Thursday.

The NAB had summoned Fawad to question him in the Ashiana housing scam. Fawad has been alleged to misuse his post to pressurise CM Punjab while he was serving in the provincial bureaucracy. 

NAB had detected illegalities and corruption worth billions in a deal between Paragon Housing Society and Punjab Land Development Company to construct the Ashiana housing scheme, a low-cost housing project of the Punjab government.

Moreover, Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique, who is the brother of Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, also appeared before the NAB for an inquiry into the Paragon Housing Society. which he reportedly owns. 

Sources informed that Rafique was probed for more than an hour after which he departed the NAB Lahore office.

On Wednesday, Saad Rafique had also appeared before NAB in an investigation pertaining to the housing scam. 

During a press conference later, the railways minister remarked that the slogan for accountability has been chanted for a different purpose. 

He remarked that he answered all questions of the NAB, adding that his stance on NAB has been the same since the first day.

?We have worked selflessly for the country?s benefit. Some forces are engaging in efforts to malign politicians,? he said.