Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) President, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Thursday said that Moonis Elahi was being implicated in a baseless and fabricated case by the Federal Investigation Agency (FAI), while an unjustified media trial had been orchestrated against him.
Addressing a press conference at his Gulberg residence here on Thursday, Shujaat said, "the truth is that Moonis Elahi's name was never in the FIR and the accused in the case had under oath denied his direct or indirect involvement in the deal." According to him, Nawaz Sharif was behind the conspiracy and the FIA was taking directions from Jati Umra instead of Islamabad. The Sharif family should remember that they should do as much injustices as they can also endure.
Shujaat claimed that Zafar Qureshi, the FIA official investigating the case, concealed Mohsin Warraich's statement from the Supreme Court and provided fabricated information to the media. He said the unlawful steps and the FIA's dubious role were principal reasons for delay in Moonis Elahi's return.
Shujaat further claimed that the master conspirator behind this nefarious scheme was Nawaz Sharif. He said that the Sharifs had forgotten the various occasions when they were provided relief by his family. "We even went to the extent of helping out a manager of one of their sugar mills but the Sharif family was bent upon proving the old saying that "Fear those on whom you show mercy," observed PML-Q leader.
Commenting on the NICL case Shujaat said, "when the Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo-motu action against the alleged irregularities in a certain land deal concluded between M/S NICL and Habib Ullah Warraich along with his son Mohsin Warraich the said deal was subsequently cancelled and it was agreed that all payments received against the land in question would be returned to the NICL. In the FIR registered by the FIA there was no other name mentioned except the names of individuals who had been part of the deal."
Shujaat said that the investigation officer Zafar Qureshi was a grade 19 officer in Punjab during the rule of Chief Minister Parvez Elahi but on failing to win undue favours in Punjab he used the back door channel of his brother Mazhar Qureshi, a parliamentary secretary and got himself promoted from grade 19 to grade 20 through the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz. The then chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission General Jamshed Gulzar Kayani (Retd) strongly objected to this illegal and unconstitutional promotion, calling it a worst precedent, he claimed.
Shujaat said that the present government promoted Zafar Qureshi from grade 20 to 21 but when he appeared before the Supreme Court in connection with the NICL case he deliberately misconstrued facts and concealed reality in order to be attached with this case so as to settle an old score. The facts were given a new twist and suddenly Moonis Elahi's manager was arrested and tortured in police custody to obtain a desirable statement, he added.
Later the manager denied the veracity of the same statement before the court but despite his denial Moonis Elahi was implicated. He said that Moonis Elahi who had proceeded abroad a week before the start of the case was represented by his lawyer, who assured Moonis Elahi's return after one week.
Shujaat said that despite this assurance the court was not appraised of it by the FIA and was deliberately kept in the dark. He said that surprisingly in the absence of any court decision regarding Moonis Elahi's arrest the FIA falsely trumpeted the news of issuance of his arrest warrant.
Shujaat said on January 31, the FIA received a statement attested by the Pakistan High Commission in London of Mohsin Warraich, an accused in the NICL case, in which Mohsin Warraich categorically denied any link of Moonis Elahi with the said case.
According to him, this most important statement available in the FIA records was not presented deliberately before the court in the February 1 hearing in order to give an impression that we had not accepted the court decision. Later on February 8 the court issued orders for presentation of record to consider the FIA's request for issuing Moonis Elahi's arrest warrants and for declaring him a proclaimed offender. The court on the FIA request directed Moonis Elahi to appear within 30 days before the court prior to declaring him a proclaimed offender.
Contrary to facts and the court's decision, Shujaat said that Zafar Qureshi tried to distort facts and the FIA fed the media with false news that Moonis Elahi had been declared a proclaimed offender. By doing this Zafar Qureshi and the FIA violated Moonis Elahi's basic constitutional and legal rights, he said.
He said that the legal period between issuance of court order and arrest warrant was blatantly flouted by issuing arrest warrant only three hours after the lawyer's assurance that Moonis Elahi would return within seven days. He said that they would brave all hostile winds and emerge victorious. He said that Moonis Elahi would have come home by now had this 'illegal and unconstitutional drama' not been staged by the FIA.