PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Sunday was re-arrested for the umpteenth time immediately after a Lahore anti-corruption court discharged him in a graft case pertaining to the Lahore Master Plan 2050, his lawyer, Rana Intezar Hussain said. “They (officials) said he has been arrested in a terrorism case and was being taken to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi,” Hussain said. 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.
He was presented in the court Sunday following his arrest by the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment’s (ACE) in Rawalpindi Saturday, which according to another one of his lawyers Sardar Abdul Razzaq, was the 12th time the PTI leader was detained since June 1 following the May 9 episode. While the hearing was under way, Elahi’s lawyer Hussain said that “anti-corruption officials have sought Elahi’s physical remand while we are opposing their request”. The court earlier reserved its decision on the ACE’s request and later dismissed Elahi, discharging him in the case.
In its written order issued in the evening, the court said: “Prima facie, no incriminating material is available against the accused which can connect him with the commission of the alleged offence.
“Hence, the accused person namely Chaudhry Parvez Elahi is hereby discharged in this case.” The court also instructed authorities to immediately release the PTI president if he was not required in any other case.
Elahi was 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 in the case.
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