LAHORE: The Lahore High Court restrained the police and Anti-Corruption Establishment on Friday from arresting Punjab’s former chief minister Parvez Elahi in any undisclosed case.
Justice Amjad Rafiq passed the injunctive order on a petition of Mr Elahi seeking details of all cases registered against him.
Mr Elahi’s counsel Amir Saeed Rawn contended that the petitioner had been subjected to political victimisation at the behest of the government. He said that back-to-back cases had been registered against the petitioner only to keep him behind bars.
He asked the court to summon details of the cases registered against the petitioner and also restrain the respondents from arresting him in any undisclosed case.
Former Punjab CM gets post-arrest bail; special court summons DIG prisons
The judge allowed the request of the petitioner and also granted him post-arrest bail in a criminal case at Gulberg police station.
DIG prisons summoned
Separately, a special court summoned DIG prisons after the superintendent of the Camp Jail failed to satisfy it on delaying the execution of a robkar (release order) of Mr Elahi in a case of illegal appointments in the Punjab Assembly.
Judge Ali Raza observed that the DIG prisons should know the violation of the court’s order by the jail’s superintendent.
Earlier, the superintendent personally appeared before the court and stated that he could not even think about defying a judicial order.
He said the implementation on the robkar was delayed due to an ambiguity in the order.
The jail officer said that the release of Mr Elahi on bail had been affected in the illegal appointment case, however, he was on judicial remand in other cases.
The judge summoned the DIG prisons on July 19.
The judge had granted post-arrest bail to Mr Elahi on June 20 in the illegal appointments case.
A lawyer for Mr Elahi told the court that the jail officials did not accept the robkar issued by the court for the release of the petitioner in the case.
Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2023
