Lahore court issues non-bailable arrest warrant for Parvez Elahi

A district and sessions court in Lahore on Friday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for former chief minister Punjab and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, Aaj News reported.

The court order said that the warrant was issued at the request of an investigating officer (IO) as Elahi had been “avoiding arrest”.

“The pre-arrest bail of the accused was dismissed due to non-prosecution vide order dated May 25 and he is not appearing before the court and also not joining the investigation. In view of the request of the IO, let non-bailable arrest warrants of accused Chaudhry Parvez Elahi be issued for June 2, 2023,” it reads.

On Thursday, police raided twice at his Lahore residence after an Anti-Corruption Court dismissed his pre-arrest bail in a case pertaining to irregularities in development projects launched during his term as the Punjab chief minister, but failed to arrest him as he was not available.

During the hearing, Judge Ali Raza rejected Elahi’s plea seeking an exemption from appearance in court after the prosecutor contended that the PTI leader’s medical reports were fake.

Elahi’s lawyer Asim Chaudhry said police will be allowed to enter his client’s residence only upon showing a search warrant.

Speaking to the media outside Elahi’s residence, he maintained that his client’s bail was dismissed on the basis of a report declaring a previously submitted medical report of Elahi as fake. “We are now challenging the report,” he added.

This was the second attempt to arrest the former chief minister of Punjab in less than a month. On April 28, the police raided Elahi’s residence, however, he was not present at home.

On May 2, the Lahore High Court (LHC) barred the police from arresting PTI President and granted him protective bail until May 15.

The high court also barred authorities from arresting the PTI leader in cases that were registered before May 2 until further orders.