In a case involving illegal appointments in the Punjab Assembly, an anti-corruption court in Lahore granted post-arrest bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Tuesday.
After hearing arguments on an application submitted by the former chief minister, anti-corruption court Special Judge Ali Raza Awan pronounced the reserved judgment a day earlier.
The PTI leader was given post-arrest bail in exchange for Rs1 million in surety bonds.
Elahi was detained on June 1 outside his Gujranwala home in an Rs70 million graft case involving the misappropriation of development funds designated for the Gujrat district.
After a Lahore district judge allowed him parole, the PTI president was arrested again in a corruption case filed by Punjab ACE in Gujranwala.
On Saturday, he was brought before a court in Gujranwala, which later discharged him in the two corruption cases filed in the district’s anti-corruption police station for allegedly receiving bribes from development funds allotted for road building in Gujrat.
However, he was arrested again minutes later by anti-corruption officers in connection with a case filed against him for alleged illegal recruiting in the Punjab Assembly while he was the speaker.
It is pertinent to mention here that Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk sent the former Punjab chief minister to jail on a 14-day judicial remand on June 4.
The illegal recruitment case
According to an ACE spokeswoman, Elahi illegally recruited 12 people for grade 17 jobs in the Punjab Assembly.
By manipulating the documents, the candidates were recruited in the provincial assembly. “The illegal recruitments were made through fake testing services,” claimed the spokeswoman.
According to him, the ACE investigation established that bogus recruitments were made in the Punjab Assembly, and the anti-corruption agency also arrested Secretary Rai Mumtaz Hussain in connection with this case based on evidence.
“Rai Mumtaz was involved in a fake recruiting process with Parvez Elahi,” he claimed.
‘Money laundering case filed against Elahi’
According to well-placed sources, the ex-Punjab chief minister is expected to be rearrested after securing bail in the illegal appointment case, as another money laundering case has been caused against Elahi and his son.
According to the sources, Elahi and his son Moonis Elahi invested billions of rupees in five Panama firms. They further claimed that the couple purchased Panama businesses using “money laundering.” The FIA has decided to issue red warrants against Moonis Elahi in order to return him home, according to the sources.
