LAHORE: The capital city police on Saturday requested the Lahore deputy commissioner to issue a 30-day detention order for PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).

The SP Security submitted a written request with the deputy commissioner for the detention of Mr Elahi, a former chief minister of Punjab, for disturbance of peace in three cases. The DC did not issue the detention orders till late evening.

Earlier in the day, a Banking Crimes Court issued orders for Mr Elahi’s release from the Camp Jail in a money laundering case.

However, he was not set free. Police said a case has been registered against the PTI leader at the Ghalib Market police station under terrorism provisions.

Banking court’s order for PTI leader’s release yet to be implemented

The money laundering case was lodged against Mr Elahi by the Fe­­deral Investigation Agency (FIA).

The court had allowed the post-arrest bail to Mr Elahi last week, subject to furnishing of surety bonds of Rs500,000.

An FIA prosecutor raised an objection to the submission of bonds by Rasikh Elahi, son of Parvez Elahi. The prosecutor said that since Mr Rasikh was also a suspect in the case, he was not eligible to furnish bonds for the bail.

However, the counsel for Mr Elahi said that the prosecutor’s objection was baseless and without any basis of law. He said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also a suspect at the time of submitting an affidavit on behalf of Nawaz Sharif, seeking bail for his elder brother.

The court rejected the prosecution’s objection and issued a robkar (release order).

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2023