<\/p>\n
A Lahore anti-corruption court discharged PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Sunday in a graft case pertaining to the Lahore Master Plan 2050 on Sunday, dismissing the Punjab Anti-Corruption Estab\u00adlish\u00adment\u2019s (ACE) request for his physical remand, the ex-chief minister\u2019s lawyer, Rana Intezar Hussain, said.<\/p>\n
The written order of the court\u2019s decision, which was reserved earlier today, is yet to be issued.<\/p>\n
In the absence of the court order and in light of the past instances \u2014 in which the PTI leader was re-arrested shortly after being granted bail or discharged in a case \u2014 it remains unclear whether he would be released following today\u2019s court ruling.<\/p>\n
Elahi is among several PTI leaders and workers who have been arrested amid the state\u2019s crackdown on the PTI leadership following the violent riots in the country after Imran\u2019s first arrest on May 9.<\/p>\n
He was presented in the court today following his arrest<\/a> in Rawalpindi yesterday, which according to one of his lawyers Sardar Abdul Razzaq was the 12th time the PTI leader was detained since June 1 following the May 9 episode.<\/p>\n While the hearing was under way, Elahi\u2019s lawyer Hussain told Dawn.com<\/em> over the phone that \u201canti-corruption officials have sought Elahi\u2019s physical remand while we are opposing their request\u201d.<\/p>\n In the newly surfaced case, Elahi has been charged under 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.<\/p>\n The printed first information report (FIR), seen by Dawn.com<\/em>, had details of the time of reporting and sections invoked filled in with pen. It was registered on July 19 at the Lahore ACE police station on the complaint of Lahore ACE officer Tariq Mehmood.<\/p>\n According to the FIR, in March 2021, then-CM 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 \u2014 an area in Kasur district \u2014 in it.<\/p>\n As a result, the value of the land owned by Elahi\u2019s sons, Moonis Elahi and Rasikh Elahi, in Kotli Rai Abu Bakar increased manifold, the FIR alleged.<\/p>\n The provincial anti-corruption authorities had taken him into custody in the case from Adiala Jail in the garrison city, where he was detained in a riots case.<\/p>\n After his arrest, Elahi was presented in an Islamabad court, which granted the ACE one-day tra\u00adnsit remand of PTI pre\u00adsident for him to be produced in the relevant anti-corruption court in Lahore.<\/p>\n After May 9, Elahi was first taken into custody<\/a> on June 1 from outside his Lahore residence by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Gujrat for allegedly taking kickbacks in development projects.<\/p>\n The next day, a Lahore court discharged<\/a> him in the case but only for the ACE to re-arrest him in a case registered in the Gujranwala region. In this case, Elahi was accused<\/a> of causing a Rs100 million loss to the national exchequer and receiving kickbacks during his time as the Punjab chief minister.<\/p>\n A day after his re-arrest, a Gujranwala court also discharged<\/a> Elahi in two corruption cases, including the one in which he was detained on June 2. But freedom still eluded him as he was again re-arrested<\/a> by anti-graft officials in a case pertaining to \u201cillegal recruitments\u201d in the Punjab Assembly.<\/p>\n While Elahi remained in custody, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) initiated another inquiry against him on June 9 over his alleged involvement in embezzlement in development projects in Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin.<\/p>\n On June 12, a sessions court set aside<\/a> a judicial magistrate\u2019s decision of Elahi\u2019s acquittal in the illegal appointments case. The Lahore High Court (LHC), however, suspended the lower court\u2019s order a day later, and a judicial magistrate again sent him to judicial lockup<\/a>.<\/p>\n The PTI leader finally secured relief<\/a> from an anti-corruption court in Lahore on June 20 but could not be released from jail as orders for his release were not delivered to the prison administration.<\/p>\n The same day, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked him, his son Moonis Elahi and three others on charges of money laundering. Subsequently, the next day, the FIA took him into custody from jail and he was sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in the money laundering case.<\/p>\n On June 25, a special court in Lahore granted Elahi bail<\/a> in the case, but he was again arrested<\/a> by the FIA outside Camp Jail in connection with another money laundering case the very next day. In this case, the FIA alleged that Elahi handed over Rs50m to a woman via a frontman for money laundering.<\/p>\n Come July, a Lahore anti-terrorism court dismissed<\/a> Elahi\u2019s post-arrest bail plea as not maintainable in a case of attacking a police team<\/a> that raided his house to arrest him in an inquiry by the ACE.<\/p>\n On July 14, the LHC restrained<\/a> police and the ACE from arresting the former Punjab chief minister in any undisclosed case while hearing his plea seeking details of all cases registered against him.<\/p>\n And Lahore Banking Crimes Court issued Elahi\u2019s release orders<\/a> in the money laundering case on July 15 \u2014 a week after it allowed his post-arrest bail. But he was not set free as police said he was booked in a terror case. The said case was registered at Lahore\u2019s Ghalib Market police station under terrorism provisions.<\/p>\n A day later, the Lahore deputy commissioner issued a 30-day detention order<\/a> under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) for Elahi, resulting in his detention<\/a> at the city\u2019s Camp Jail.<\/p>\n Upon the completion of the MPO detention on Aug 14, the Lahore NAB team took Elahi into custody<\/a> from the Adiala Jail \u2014 where he was taken on July 19, reportedly on administrative grounds \u2014 in yet another graft case. The NAB alleged Elahi received bribes\/kickbacks in exchange for getting the \u201ccontracts of road schemes of Gujrat Highways Division awarded to favourite\/hand-picked contractors\u201d.<\/p>\n Fifteen days later, the LHC directed<\/a> NAB to release him and barred authorities from arresting him in any case, but Islamabad police arrested him anyway. Police said he was held under 3-MPO on a magistrate\u2019s orders. The order said Elahi should be detained for 15 days.<\/p>\n The detention order was suspended<\/a> by the IHC on Sept 6 but Elahi was arrested yet again by the police the same day. The arrest was made in a case pertaining to clashes between Islamabad police and PTI workers outside the Judicial Complex on March 18.<\/p>\n On Sept 15, an Islamabad anti-terrorism court granted him bail<\/a> in the riots case, but he was re-arrested<\/a> by the ACE a day later in connection with a case pertaining to the Lahore Master Plan 2050.<\/p>\n The surety bonds for the bail were not submitted yet; hence, his client had not been released from the Adiala jail and subsequently taken into custody by the ACE, Elahi\u2019s lawyer said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Lahore anti-corruption court discharged PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Sunday in a graft case pertaining to the Lahore Master Plan 2050 on Sunday, dismissing the Punjab Anti-Corruption Estab\u00adlish\u00adment\u2019s (ACE) request for his physical remand, the ex-chief minister\u2019s lawyer, Rana Intezar Hussain, said. The written order of the court\u2019s decision, which was reserved earlier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/09\/17140654337cb2a.png?r=140817","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Timeline of arrests<\/h2>\n