LAHORE: A district court on Sunday reserved its verdict on a request from the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) for PTI President Pervaiz Elahi’s physical remand in a case pertaining to illegal recruitments in the Punjab Assembly.
Elahi was presented before the court by ACE officials amid tight security after he was re-arrested for the second time in two days.
Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk was hearing ACE’s request for Elahi’s physical remand.
According to an ACE officer, the case of the illegal appointments alleges that Elahi recruited 12 Grade-17 officers in the Punjab Assembly against merit.
He got changed the results of these candidates belonging to Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin. We have collected evidence and also arrested Secretary Punjab Assembly Rai Mumtaz Hussain in this regard, he told.
Meanwhile, talking to the media after the court hearing, Elahi said it would make no difference no matter how many cases were registered against him.
“My message to PTI workers is to stand up against this injustice and how they’re repeatedly demolishing people’s homes home and committing injustice against women. We have to stand like an iron wall and confront all of them because we are raising voice for truth and justice,” Elahi said.
Questioned about those behind the filing of a case against him, Elahi said the media personnel knew better than him who is behind it, adding that the police did not have anything to do with it.
“I am sending a message for the first time to those who are actually doing all these things: we are not against the army, we are in its favour and we don’t have anything to do with that which hurts the army .sit down with us and tell us the way forward for how to take the country forward, he said, adding that people did not have access to jobs, food or clothing. He also said that he would openly correct the PTI chief on his mistakes.
The army is a very big institution and is our own. We want to move forward together, he added.
At the outset of hearing, the ACE expressed a lack of confidence in judicial magistrate Virk, with the establishment’s director general (DG), Jam Salahuddin, saying they had received instructions that he should not hear the case.
For his part, the judge said, “A campaign is being run against me. I don’t have any account on Face book. I don’t have any account on social media.”
Following this exchange, the ACE official told the magistrate that they needed some time to file their request with a session’s judge for changing the judge in this case.
“I have received the instructions and we will submit a request to a session’s judge, but we need some time for that,” he said.
At that, Elahi’s lawyer argued that the court timings were about to end. He said they would get a case registered against the ACE DG if Elahi was taken away again today.
Then, on the ACE DG’s request, judge Virk suspended the session for a while.
After the hearing resumed, the ACE’s legal counsel presented his arguments upon which the judge said that the FIR mentioned the results of Open Testing Service were changed.
The ACE counsel said the results of the testing service were tampered.
Then Elahi’s lawyer began presenting his arguments, saying that Punjab Assembly Secretary Rai Mumtaz, who was also arrested in the case yesterday, wanted to say something.
Upon the magistrate’s assent, Rai told the court that he was the coordination secretary in the provincial legislature at the time when the alleged illegal appointments were made to it.
“I was walking last night when I was picked up. I was blindfolded and taken around. They took me to a place where the DG anti-corruption was present.
“He (ACE DG) said, ‘Do you want to remain in your position. When I said yes, he forced me into becoming a witness. My testimony was forcefully recorded from me, and I couldn’t sleep all night.”
At one point during the hearing, the judge addressed the ACE’s reservation about him hearing the case, saying he was the same judge who had granted physical remand of PTI workers and yet today there was an issue being raised about him presiding over the case.
While conversing with the judge, the ACE’s lawyer contented that contender scoring 60 marks were failed and those with merely a score of eight were passed.
“All this evidence is on record and we need Elahi’s 14-day physical remand,” he said.
Presenting his arguments, Elahi’s lawyer contended there was no other allegation against his client apart from changing in the test results. He said the Punjab Assembly speaker had the right to appoint anyone, adding that the OTS was still functional and could not be questioned.
He said candidates had appeared for exams after which their results were sent to the Punjab Assembly secretary, interviews were conducted on the basis of merit and joining letters were issued to those who passed.
Those who were appointed are still working. Had there been any problem, they would’ve been stopped from working, he said, adding that no evidence was presented in court against his client. He requested the court to discharge Elahi from the case.
The judge subsequently reserved his verdict on ACE’s request for Elahi’s physical remand.
Elahi said while speaking to the media that even if “they register 100 cases against me, it would not make a difference”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.