LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday alleged before the Lahore High Court (LHC) that a son and two daughters-in-law of former chief minister Parvez Elahi committed money laundering through a low cadre employee of the Punjab Assembly.

A report submitted by the FIA revealed that Rasikh Elahi, the son of the former chief minister, his wife Zara Elahi and sister-in-law Tehreem Elahi (the wife of Moonis Elahi) used the bank accounts of Qaiser Iqbal Bhatti, a peon of the assembly, to launder money.

It said unexplained transactions of millions of rupees had been traced in the accounts of the peon and the children of Parvez Elahi. It alleged that the assets of the peon had been found beyond his known sources of income.

The report said the petitioners had been served with self-explanatory call-up notices to appear before the investigation team but they failed. It alleged that the peon of the assembly, Bhatti, had been involved in inexplicable transactions of Rs175m.

Rasikh says FIA repeating old charges, case quashed by high court

Rejecting the allegations of harassment and political consideration, the agency said the concept of fair trial was not only for the citizens but the prosecution as well. It said the inquiry in question had no nexus with any previous probe as it had been initiated against a government servant, the assembly’s peon.

“No fundamental right of the petitioners is jeopardised. The FIA is investigating the case on merit,” maintained the report filed in connection with a petition of Rasikh Elahi and others challenging the FIA inquiry and the alleged harassment.

In a statement, Rasikh Elahi rejected the FIA report as fabricated, saying the entire case was bogus and had been recreated as a political revenge. He said the FIA was distorting the facts and repeating the old allegations as all the answers had already been submitted with evidence.

Rasikh said the money laundering case had already been quashed by the high court. He said the facts of the case had been distorted.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2023