ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's anti-graft body on Tuesday arrested opposition leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his younger brother, Salman Rafique, for their alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar housing scam in Lahore.
Both the brothers are senior members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
The Lahore High Court, on Tuesday, rejected the bail application filed by the two in the “Paragon Housing Scam”, following which officials from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested them from outside the court.
The two are accused of receiving an overestimated contract for a housing society project which was allegedly approved by the former Chief Minister of Punjab and PML-N president, Shehbaz Sharif.
The Khawaja brothers rejected the charges, adding that they were politically motivated, even as the Ashiana Housing Scheme case is one of the key charges against Sharif who is currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Kot Lakhpat Jail after being arrested by NAB.
Saad Rafique served as the railways minister under former-PM Nawaz Sharif, who was removed from office in July last year following the Supreme Court's decision in the Panama Papers' case.
PML-N spokesperson, Marriyum Aurangzeb, while talking to reporters on Tuesday said that the arrest of the Khawaja brothers was nothing but “political vendetta."
Rafique is the member of the National Assembly from Lahore and is considered as a close aide of PML-N leadership.
Nawaz, the supreme leader of the PML-N and thrice former prime minister, is accused of being involved in two corruption cases, too.
