LAHORE/ GUJRAT: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday granted protective bail to former chief minister and PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in two more cases – one by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and the other by the police on terrorism charges.

Mr Elahi first appeared before a two-judge bench along with his lawyers and sought bail in the case lodged by the Ghalib Market police.

Lahore High Court Bar Association President Ishtiaq A Khan and former secretary Amir Saeed Rawn appeared on his behalf. They told the bench that the police first attacked the house of the petitioner and later registered a case on terrorism charges against him and others. They said an ACE team came to arrest the petitioner despite him being on protective bail.

The bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, allowed the protective bail to Parvez Elahi till May 4 and directed him to approach the court concerned before the next hearing.

Turns down request to bar ACE, police from action

Later, a single bench, comprising Justice Asjad Javed Ghural, also granted protective bail to the former CM in the graft case by the ACE till May 15.

On a separate petition by Parvez Elahi’s son Rasikh Elahi, Justice Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar directed the ACE director general and the Punjab police to submit reports about the cases and the raid at the petitioner’s house for the arrest of his father.

However, the judge turned down a request of the petitioner to restrain the police and the ACE from registering any new case against the former CM and arresting him before the submission of the detailed report summoned by the court.

Justice Dogar asked the petitioner’s counsel as to how the court could restrain the respondents from the arrest.

“How can this court believe your version without seeing the reports of the respondents?” the judge asked the counsel.

The counsel said last night another raid was conducted at the Gujrat residence of the PTI president.

The judge directed the ACE and the police to submit their reports by the next hearing.

Previously, the LHC, on April 28, had granted interim protective bail till May 6 to Parvez Elahi in the case of alleged corruption registered by the Gujranwala office of the ACE.

The same night, the police and the ACE launched an operation at the Gulberg house of Elahi to make his arrest. The operation lasted for eight hours without any success.

Parvez, Wajahat residences raided

A joint team of Gujrat police and the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) conducted raids at the Kunjah House and Nutt House – residences of former chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and former federal minister Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain – late on Monday.

This was the fourth raid by the law enforcement agencies on the residence of former chief minister and his son MNA Moonis Elahi during the last couple of months. No arrest could be made in these raids.

However, the residence of Wajahat Hussain (Nutt House) was raided by the police for the first time. Some policemen also entered the premises of the residence by scaling its boundary wall but nobody was arrested.

Sources says the police also conducted raids on the houses of two supporters of the Chaudhrys, including Sheikh Shekaz Aslam in Kunjah town and another one near Mungowal, without making any arrest.

Meanwhile, Chaudhry Wajahat and his son Musa Elahi could not appear in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Younis Laar on Tuesday. Their bail before arrest had been extended till May 2 on the previous date of hearing.

They had been booked by the Karianwala police station in two different cases of alleged life attempt and firing on the house of a former Hajiwala union council chairman Muhammad Ali Gujjar of the PML-N in February the last.

Their lawyers informed the court that Mr Wajahat and his son had tested positive for Covid-19 and could not appear in the court.

The judge then fixed May 12 as the next date of hearing in both the cases.

Strict security arrangements had been made by police in and around the compound of the district courts during the hearing.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2023