F.P. Report
LAHORE: The court of a judicial magistrate in Lahore Wednesday refused to give physical remand of former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and sent him to jail on judicial remand.
The judicial magistrate pronounced the reserved verdict.
Earlier in day, the FIA arrested Pervaiz Elahi in the money laundering case and produced him before a court in the district courts of Lahore.
The FIA officials demanded a 14-day physical remand of Pervaiz Elahi from the court.
The FIA had registered a new first information report (FIR) against Pervaiz Elahi on the charge of money laundering through five companies.
The FIA also nominated Pervaiz Elahi’s son Moonis Elahi, Jibran and others in the case.
Meanwhile, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) for protective bail and the details of the cases against him.
The FIA, police and others were made respondents in the petition filed by Pervaiz Elahi.
“Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is a former Punjab chief minister. Cases were being registered against him on political grounds,” it was stated in the petition.
The court was requested to provide the details of the cases against Pervaiz Elahi and grant him protective bail in the money laundering case.
It is to be noted here that Pervaiz Elahi had not been released despite bail from a special anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Tuesday.
On Tuesday last, a special anti-terrorism court in Lahore had approved the post-arrest bail of PTI Central President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in a case pertaining to making illegal appointments.
The court had accepted the bail application of the former Punjab chief minister and former Punjab Assembly secretary coordination Rai Mumtaz in illegal recruitments case in lieu of surety bonds of Rs1 million each.
Special Judge Anti-Corruption Ali Raza Awan read out the verdict he had reserved earlier.
Lahore Bar President Rana Intezar represented Pervaiz Elahi in the case.
While giving his arguments, Special Prosecutor Abdus Sammad from Anti-Corruption Establishment said that the former chief minister and others had given grade-17 jobs to 12 candidates in the Punjab Assembly despite the fact that they had failed to pass the written test.
“There are clear proofs that the record and the documents had been tampered with,” he said, and added, “The candidate securing just eight marks was accommodated while the one getting 58 marks was overlooked.”
On June 4, a Lahore district court had sent Pervaiz Elahi on 14-day judicial remand while rejecting the Anti-Corruption Establishment’s (ACE) request for his physical remand.
An ACE spokesperson then told the media that Pervaiz Elahi allegedly recruited 12 Grade-17 officers in the Punjab Assembly against merit.
Pervaiz Elahi was first arrested on June 1 after police raided his Lahore residence twice after an anti-corruption court dismissed his pre-arrest bail in a case pertaining to irregularities in development projects launched during his term as the Punjab chief minister.
On June 2, a judicial magistrate at an anti-corruption court in Lahore had ordered his release as he announced the reserved verdict on a plea seeking Pervaiz Elahi’s physical remand.
However, the former CM was again arrested by law-enforcement authorities upon release in a corruption case registered against him in Gujranwala.
