LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday first recused from an Intra Court Appeal (ICA) of PTI president Pervez Elahi, however, later chose to decide its maintainability against a single bench’s decision that set aside a judicial magistrate’s order of discharging him in a corruption case.

The bench comprising Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Ali Zia Bajwa now would resume its hearing on Tuesday (today).

Earlier Justice Sarwar Chaudhry told the counsel that the bench would not hear the appeal for personal reasons and the chief justice would be requested to fix the hearing before any other bench.

The bench, however, resumed the hearing again on the request of the Elahi’s counsel and decided to hear arguments on the point of maintainability of the appeal.

A single bench on October 3 set aside the magistrate’s decision of discharging Pervez Elahi in a corruption case with a direction to review the same.

The prosecutor general filed an appeal challenging the exoneration of Pervez Elahi by the magistrate in a case of alleged corruption in funds for development schemes.

The prosecution argued that the magistrate had no power to discharge the respondent Pervez Elahi.

On the other hand, Pervez Elahi’s counsel stated that the magistrate was empowered to discharge any suspect in the absence of evidence.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had registered the case.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023