Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf President Chaudhry Parez Elahi. — Radio Pakistan/File
Taking strict action against top Punjab officials over noncompliance with its order, Lahore’s Special Court (Central) on Wednesday instructed the finance ministry to stop the salaries of the Punjab inspector general of police (IGP), IG prison and the home secretary for not producing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parez Elahi before it.
Currently, the former Punjab chief minister is lingering in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail after being rearrested multiple times in different cases following the May riots.
Local court Judge Bakht Fakhar Bahzad issued the orders while hearing a money laundering case filed against the former Punjab chief minister. Besides stopping the salaries of the top officials, the court also slapped a fine of Rs50,000 on each of the officers.
In addition to this, the court served show-cause notices on the trio and directed them to submit their reply on August 5.
Expressing its annoyance, the court observed that it was incomprehensible how the state shows negligence over keeping a person in prison without producing them in court.
In his written order, the judge expressed his anger, saying how the authorities dared to shift a suspect who was in judicial custody without the permission of the court.
“A prisoner is kidnapped by three officers,” noted the court.
Earlier during the course of the proceedings, DIG Ali Nasir Rizwi apprised the court that the authorities at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail were reluctant to hand over the suspect to them.
At this, the judge asked: “With whose permission was the accused sent to Rawalpindi?”
“The home department sent the suspect to Rawalpindi jail,” replied the police officer.
On July 19, the PTI president was shifted to the Adiala Jail while his wife challenged his detention under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (3 MPO) Act in the Lahore High Court (LHC).
According to jail officials, Elahi was moved from Camp Jail at 5am on Wednesday (July 19) and shifted to Adiala via motorway.
Elahi was initially arrested on June 1 in a graft case amid a crackdown on the PTI in the wake of the May 9 protests. He was rearrested multiple times after this in different cases, including the two money laundering cases.
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