Lahore High Court bars police from arresting Parvez Elahi

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday barred the police from arresting former Punjab chief minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and granted him protective bail until May 15, Aaj News reported.

Talking to reporters after appearing before the court, Elahi claimed that the police took action against him on orders of the caretaker Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi.

The former chief minister said elections will take place soon and his party will emerge victorious.

Earlier, the LHC rejected Elahi’s request to stop the police from arresting him. The orders come after the police conducted a raid at his home in Gujrat, as per a tweet by Parvez’s son Moonis.

The first raid took place on Friday night at their family residence in Lahore, following which his other son Rasikh approached the LHC and urged the court to restrain the anti-corruption body and the police from arresting his father till the expiry of his protective bail.

During today’s hearing, LHC’s Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar directed the Punjab police chief and the director general of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to submit a detailed report regarding the late-night raid.

Elahi’s son moves LHC against raid on their house

Parvez’s lawyer told the court that raids were being conducted daily on the orders of the ACE and the Punjab police. He asked the court to stop authorities from arresting Parvez and registering another case against him until a detailed report was submitted.

However, the judge rejected the request.

Background

On Friday night, the police launched an operation for the arrest of Elahi, which lasted for almost eight hours with no success.

On Saturday, the Punjab police booked him on several charges including terrorism, stating that law enforcement officials were “attacked with stones, batons and petrol” during the raid.

A first information report (FIR) was lodged at Lahore’s Ghalib Market Police Station invoking Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, and Section 324 (attempted murder) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) among others.

As per the FIR, Parvez’s employees “locked the house from the inside, while a countless” number of people inside threatened the team when it arrived at his home.

Parvez’s workers also pelted law enforcement authorities with stones and doused petrol on them, causing a fire to break out, said the FIR.