"<p><span style=""color: black;"">On Wednesday, an accounting court in Lahore rejected acquittal requests in the Paragon City case by former rail minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his son former provincial minister Khawaja Salman Rafique. Judge Jawadul Hassan reserved the decision on the applications on Monday after lawyers Ashtar Ausaf Ali and Amjad Pervaiz concluded their claims against the authority of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on behalf of the petitioners.</span></p><p><span style=""color: black;"">The lawyer argued that controversies over a private business did not fall within the scope of the 1999 National Accountability Ordinance and claimed that there was no accusation of bribery or abuse of the national exchequer as public office holders against the petitioners. They also said that Pakistan's Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP) was the appropriate agency to prosecute these matters under the Companies Act 2017. We asked the court to set aside the petitioners ' prosecution and acquit the charges against them.</span></p>"
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