LAHORE: A special court (central) has ordered blocking of computerised national identity cards and passports of six absconding suspects, including former chief minister Parvez Elahi’s son Moonis Elahi in an alleged money laundering case.

The court issued a written order of a previous hearing into the money laundering case against the family of Parvez Elahi and other suspects.

The court has directed the freezing of Moonis’ properties and bank accounts.

The court further ordered the FIA to include names of the six proclaimed offenders in the passport control list. Other POs include Farasat Ali Chatha, Imtiaz Ali Shah, Amir Sohail, and Aamir Fayyaz.

The court also approved freezing of properties and bank accounts of Moonis and his co-suspect Zaigham Abbas.

The properties owned by Moonis include a 26-kanal land in Kasur, a plot and a house in Gulberg, Lahore.

The court sought a compliance report for the next hearing, set to take place on Sept 19.

The FIA alleged that sons and daughters-in-law of former chief minister Elahi committed money laundering through a low cadre employee of the Punjab Assembly.

It said the suspects used bank accounts of Qaiser Iqbal Bhatti, a peon of the assembly, to launder ill-gotten money.

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

The FIA said the inquiry in question had no relation with any previous probe as it had been initiated against a government servant, the assembly’s peon.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024