LAHORE: The Special Court (Central) on Saturday granted PTI President Pervaiz Elahi post-arrest bail in money laundering case and ordered his release, days after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested him.
On June 21, Elahi was taken into custody from the district jail in the said case. The FIA had requested physical custody, but a district court denied it and he and was sent to jail on judicial remand. He has been accused of money laundering via five companies and frontmen.
The same day, his son Rasikh Elahi had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking details of all cases against his father as well as a protective bail.
The next day, a special court for banking offences had issued notices to the FIA on Pervaiz Elahi’s post-arrest bail petition while confirming the interim pre-arrest bail of his son and two daughters-in-law.
During court proceedings on Saturday, Advocate Amjad Pervaiz appeared as Pervaiz Elahi’s counsel while he was in jail. Meanwhile, the FIA had opposed the acceptance of his bail plea.
Later, judge Bakht Fakhar Bahzad’s court issued an order for the PTI president’s release from the District Camp jail, which states that Pervaiz Elahi is to be released “if not wanted in any other case and after confirmation of surety bonds”.
The court accepted Elahi’s bail plea for surety bonds worth Rs10,000.
Son seeks Elahi’s protective bail
Elahi’s son, Rasikh, had filed a petition in the LHC on June 21 seeking details of all cases against his father as well as a protective bail.
Rasikh had made Punjab’s caretaker government, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), the FIA, Punjab Inspector General Dr Usman Anwar, the capital city police officer and the deputy inspector general respondents in the petition.
The plea, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, asked the LHC to direct the respondents to “produce all the details of criminal cases/FIRs registered against the petitioner’s father which have not been disclosed by the respondents”.
It had also sought protective bail for Elahi in the money laundering case that the PTI president was booked in on June 20.
Rasikh had also requested the LHC to direct the respondents to not arrest Elahi “while being released from the Camp Jail Lahore till the petitioner has been provided with the copies of the FIRs lodged against” Elahi, as well as till Elahi has been provided with a “reasonable opportunity of at least three days to apply for anticipatory/protective bail”.
The petition alleged that Elahi was being “politically victimised by the law-enforcing agencies” of Punjab and that he has been falsely implicated in various cases by the ACE.
It had further said that false cases have been registered against Elahi on the “instructions and connivance of sitting federal government”. The plea argued that the respondents — the police, FIA and the ACE — were not discharging their duties in accordance with the law.
It described the manner of raids conducted at Elahi’s house on April 28 as being similar to “conducting an operation in the tribal (katcha) areas of district Rahim Yar Khan, without showing any regard to the dignity and privacy of the family of the petitioner”.
The plea had recalled a May court order to not arrest Elahi in “any of the cases registered against him till today” and stated that five cases have been filed against the PTI president by the ACE.
