In a case concerning illegitimate appointments to the Punjab Assembly, a local court in Lahore granted a 14-day judicial remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi.
Elahi, who is still being held in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, was brought before Judicial Magistrate Aamir Raza's court by officials of the Anti-Corruption Establishment following the conclusion of his two-day physical remand. But in order to finish the investigations, the ACE requested the court give him an additional 10 days of physical detention.
In connection with a Rs70 million graft case involving the misappropriation of development funds designated for the Gujrat district, Elahi was first taken into custody on June 1 from outside his home. The former chief minister of Punjab has since been freed many times, only to be taken into custody right away in various situations.
The lawyer for the ACE informed the court at the beginning of today's hearings that they needed to get the suspect's mobile phone. The lawyer insisted that Rs4.1 million had been taken from Elahi's residence and said the ACE needed to look into the situation.
Elahi's lawyer, however, countered that the interim government was filing fictitious and unfounded complaints against his client. "Elahi is being politically victimized by the government by being arrested on fabricated and unfounded charges repeatedly," he added.
Following hearing the arguments made by both sides, the magistrate denied ACE's plea and placed Elahi under judicial remand for a period of 14 days.
A spokesperson for ACE said that Elahi illegally hired 12 people for 17th-grade seats in the Punjab Assembly. By falsifying the records, the candidates were chosen for the provincial legislature. The representative said that "fake testing services were used to make the illegal recruitments."