Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi was arrested for the second consecutive day by the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Saturday, shortly after being discharged by a Gujranwala court in two graft cases.
ACE officials stated that Elahi was detained for alleged illegal recruitment he did in the Punjab Assembly while being the speaker.
This marks the second time that the PTI leader has been re-arrested by the ACE following court relief.
Just minutes before his arrest, a local court had discharged Elahi in two corruption cases related to alleged kickbacks during the construction of roads in Gujrat. However, he was once again taken into custody in connection with a corruption case registered against him in Gujranwala by the Punjab ACE.
After his arrest, Elahi was brought to the ACE’s regional office in Gujranwala and presented before Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Afzal.
Moonis Elahi, Parvez Elahi’s son, described the case against his father as baseless and claimed that he had been discharged in all three cases registered against him in Lahore and Gujranwala.
He accused the authorities of victimization and stated that his father was not given access to his medication and basic facilities while in custody.
According to an ACE spokesperson, the investigation revealed that Elahi had made 12 illegal recruitments in grade 17 at the Punjab Assembly by altering records.
The spokesperson stated that the recruitments were made through fake testing services and that Secretary Rai Mumtaz Hussain, who was also arrested in connection with the case, was involved in the fraudulent recruitment process with Parvez Elahi.
Parvez Elahi addressed the media after the hearing, expressing that he will accept whatever decision the court makes and referring to it as a test for the judiciary.
