- Court grants Punjab ACE one-day transit remand of PTI President in a graft case
ISLAMABAD: PTI President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was rearrested on Saturday for “12th time” since June 1, by the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) as soon as he left the Central Jail Rawalpindi commonly known as Adiala jail after his release.
The latest arrest came as Pervaiz Elahi who had served as the Punjab chief minister twice – is nominated in four corruption related cases being investigated by the ACE – the top anti-graft agency in the province.
Pervaiz Elahi is among several PTI leaders and workers who have been arrested amid the state’s crackdown on the PTI leadership following the violent riots in the country after Imran’s first arrest on May 9.
His fresh detention comes a day after an Islamabad anti-terrorism court (ATC) granted the former Punjab chief minister bail in a case pertaining to riots outside the Federal Judicial Complex (FJC) in March.
Later, an Islamabad court granted the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) one-day transit remand of PTI President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in a graft case.
According to Pervaiz Elahi’s lawyer Sardar Abdul Razzaq, the surety bonds for yesterday’s bail were not submitted yet, hence his client had not been released from the Adiala jail and subsequently taken into custody by the ACE.
Speaking to the media, Razzaq said the Punjab ACE asked for Pervaiz Elahi’s five-day remand, but the court granted it one-day transit remand. The PTI leader would now be taken to Lahore and presented before the relevant anti-corruption court tomorrow, he said.
When a reporter asked him about reports of Pervaiz Elahi being asked to hold a “[press] conference”, he said Pervaiz Elahi was “very determined” on his political stance and was “not ready to hold any sort of press conference”.
Asked about the former Punjab chief minister’s physical health, the lawyer acknowledged that he was an “elderly person and a heart patient” but was in “high spirits and has a high morale”.
The FIR
The first information report (FIR) has details of the time of reporting and sections invoked filled in with pen.
The FIR was registered on July 19 at the Lahore ACE police station on the complaint of Lahore ACE officer Tariq Mehmood.
It invokes sections 109 (punishment of abetment if the Act abetted committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as section 5 (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.
According to the FIR, in March 2021, then-CM Pervaiz Elahi misused his authority and colluded with Lahore Development Authority Director Amir Ahmed Khan to illegally alter the draft of the Lahore Master Plan 2050 and include Kotli Rai Abu Bakar — an area in Kasur district — in it.
As a result, the value of the land owned by Pervaiz Elahi’s sons – Moonis Elahi and Rasikh Elahi, in Kotli Rai Abu Bakar increased manifold, the FIR said.
