LAHORE: A special (banking) court on Friday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of PML-Q leader and former federal minister Chaudhry Moonis Elahi and two others till July 23 in a case of alleged money laundering registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the light of a report of the Sugar Inquiry Commission of 2020.

Mr Elahi, Punjab Assembly secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti and Wajid Bhatti appeared before the court along with their counsel Amjad Pervez.

The counsel argued that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigated each and every asset of Elahi’s family during the last 20 years and found not single illegality. He said the then NAB-Lahore director general himself told the Lahore High Court that no evidence had been found against the Chaudhry brothers. Later, he said, an accountability court approved the closing of the inquiries against the family at the request of the NAB.

The investigating officer of the FIA stated that custody of the suspects was required to complete the investigation.

Presiding Judge Aslam Gondal directed the IO to conclude his arguments by July 23 and also extended the bail of Moonis and others.

The FIA registered the FIR under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention), 109 (punishment for abatement), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a genuine forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and section 4 of the Anti Money Laundering Act, 2010.

The FIR says in the light of the Sugar Commission`s report that the FIA was mandated by the federal government to probe financial and corporate frauds committed by various sugar mills, including Rahim Yar Khan/Alliance Sugar Mills.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2022