PTI’s Parvez Elahi granted bail in illegal appointments case

An anti-corruption court in Lahore on Tuesday granted post-arrest bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in a case relating to illegal appointments in the Punjab Assembly.

Anti-corruption court Special Judge Ali Raza Awan announced the verdict reserved a day earlier after hearing the arguments on an application filed by the former chief minister.

The PTI leader was granted post-arrest bail against surety bonds worth Rs1 million.

Elahi was initially arrested on June 1 from outside his Gujranwala residence in a Rs70 million graft case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district.

After a district court in Lahore ordered his release, the PTI president was arrested again in a corruption case registered against him in Gujranwala by Punjab ACE.

He was then presented before a court in Gujranwala on Saturday, which later discharged him in the two corruption cases registered in the district's anti-corruption police station for allegedly taking kickbacks in the development funds allocated for the construction of roads in Gujrat.

However, he was re-arrested by anti-corruption personnel minutes later, in a case registered against him for the alleged illegal recruitment in the Punjab Assembly when he was the speaker.

It is pertinent to mention here that Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk sent the former Punjab chief minister to jail on a 14-day judicial remand on June 4.

The illegal recruitment case

According to the details provided by an ACE spokesperson, Elahi made 12 illegal recruitments in Punjab Assembly on grade 17 positions.

The candidates were recruited in the provincial assembly by altering the records. "The illegal recruitments were made through fake testing services," said the spokesperson.

He said that the investigation by the ACE proved that fake recruitments were made in Punjab Assembly, adding that the anti-corruption has also arrested Secretary Rai Mumtaz Hussain in connection with this case on the basis of evidence.

"Rai Mumtaz was involved in a fake recruiting process with Parvez Elahi," he said. 

‘Money laundering case filed against Elahi’

The ex-Punjab chief minister is likely to be rearrested after obtaining bail in the illegal appointment case as yet another money case relating to money laundering has been filed against Elahi and his son, revealed well-placed sources.

Elahi and his son Moonis Elahi reportedly invested funds worth billions of rupees in five Panama companies, the sources said. They further said that the duo bought Panama companies via “money laundering”. In order to bring Moonis Elahi back home, the FIA has decided to get issued red warrants against him, the sources added.