ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) MP Moonis Elahi claimed Thursday the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was punishing him for standing with and supporting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan.
He made these remarks after a four-hour-long appearance before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) two days after it registered the case and initiated money laundering proceedings against him.
Elahi, while talking to a TV channel, said Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan was trying to trap him in fabricated cases at any cost. He said he was present in the meeting with Sanaullah in which he gave remarks about the former prime minister being a rude person.
Elahi claimed the PML-N leaders were afraid of Khan’s moves. He alleged he thinks that the home minister was not only a drug dealer but also an addict. He added that dacoity and murder cases against Sanaullah would have been proved true.
He blamed PML-N’s Sanaullah for being a key character in filing cases against him. He added that the prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab chief minister Hamza Shahbaz were also facing FIA cases and Rs16 billion corruption cases were proved against Sharif and his sons.
He dared the interior minister to take action against PM Sharif and his sons.
The PML-Q leader claimed that he was being threatened via unknown telephone calls to part ways with Imran Khan. Moonis Elahi said that he has closer to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as compared to his father and Shujaat is also willing to see Khan’s return to power.
Regarding his appearance before the FIA investigators, he said that he thought to get a clear position regarding the inquiry against him and he does not know what will happen after his arrest.
“I was told at the FIA office that the duty hours have ended and they asked me to arrive at the office on Thursday at 8:30 am. The FIA officers told me that they are not allowed to record his statement right now. I went there to surrender but they did not arrest me. I know well that the case was filed against me yesterday. I am not facing any case related to the probe into sugar inquiry commission.”
Regarding the separate sessions of the Punjab Assembly, Moonis Elahi said that the PA session held at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal has no legal grounds.
PROCEEDINGS
Elahi appeared in the agency’s Lahore offices to address the charges of money laundering levelled against him.
Former minister Liaquat Bhatti, party lawmakers Khadeeja Farooqi, Samina Khawar Hayyat, Saira Naseem and a number of supporters accompanied him to the offices in a show of solidarity.
A questionnaire was handed to him on the occasion wherein he was asked whether he knew Nawaz Bhatti and Mazhar Iqbal; his association with Rahim Yar Khan (RYK) sugar mills; how one Omar Shehryar had managed to obtain mills’ license years ago in 2007; what he knew about Cascade and Axes capital companies; what was his relation with two other persons nominated in the case namely Muhammad Khan Bhatti and Wajid Khan; and if he has any knowledge of the purchase of shares in the RYK sugar mills in 2013-14.
It was reported the Corporate Crime Circle of FIA registered the case against Elahi on the report of the sugar inquiry commission.
Reports citing sources said “sufficient evidence” was collected against Elahi after which the agency decided to formally start an investigation against him. He was accused of sending money abroad through illegal means.
Elahi’s father and Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi will also be investigated if the evidence is found against him, the sources added.
On Tuesday, the agency’s corporate crime circle booked Elahi, Punjab Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti and six others on charges of money laundering in an alleged sugar scam. The state has been named as the complainant in the first information report (FIR).
Subsequently, the PML-Q leader reached the FIA office on Lahore’s Temple Road on Wednesday evening to join the investigation. He was, however, sent back.
