A local court in Lahore has dismissed the Anti-Corruption Establishment’s (ACE) request for a 14-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi.
Instead, the court has ordered a 14-day judicial remand for Elahi in two cases related to illegal appointments.
Judicial Magistrate Imran Abid handed down the verdict after final arguments from all involved parties.
The first information reports (FIRs) against Elahi alleged that he made 12 illegal appointments to grade 17 positions within the Punjab Assembly and unlawfully appointed Muhammad Khan Bhatti as his principal secretary, violating the law.
Elahi, who was on a one-day transitory remand, was presented before the court by Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). The ACE prosecutor requested a 14-day physical remand for the PTI leader, a request that the court denied.
This development follows another legal fight for Elahi, as he faces a new case filed by Punjab’s ACE in Lahore. This case accuses him of misusing his power and position to manipulate the provincial bureaucracy.
An FIR has been registered against Elahi under section 5/2(d)47 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), alleging illicit use of his authority as the former chief minister of Punjab to transfer Muhammad Khan Bhatti, an employee in a special department of the Punjab Assembly, to a principal secretary.
Previously, Elahi had been arrested on June 1 in a graft case during the PTI’s crackdown following the May 9 protests. Subsequently, he faced multiple rearrests in various cases, including two money laundering cases.
According to an ACE spokesperson, the investigation has uncovered that Elahi orchestrated the illegal recruitment of candidates in the Punjab Assembly by altering records.
The spokesperson revealed that these recruitments were conducted through fake testing services. Additionally, Secretary Rai Mumtaz Hussain has been arrested by the anti-corruption department in connection with this case, based on evidence suggesting his involvement in the fraudulent recruitment process with Parvez Elahi.
In a related legal development, the Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) appeal against the court’s August 31 order, deeming it inadmissible. The earlier had directed NAB to release Elahi, as the antigraft watchdog had sought more time to submit its reply explaining his arrest. S
ubsequently, NAB filed an appeal against this decision, but a two-member bench of the LHC, led by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, has now declared the appeal inadmissible, concluding the case.
