PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Friday was discharged in a corruption case by a Lahore court, only to be re-arrested from outside the court premises by Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Gujranwala in a separate case.
Elahi was first arrested from outside his Lahore residence on Thursday, with television footage showing Elahi being forcefully taken away on a road during the arrest, which came after multiple futile raids at his house.
Earlier today, the district court discharged the former Punjab chief minister in the corruption case he was arrested in by ACE officials.
In an order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the court termed the case against Elahi not “well-founded” as per the ACE investigation and inquiry.
“Therefore, the matter requires further probe and inquiry before levelling any allegation against the accused,” it said and ordered the PTI leader’s “immediate release if not required in any other criminal case”.
“However, the investigation agency may arrest him subsequently if they find incriminating material as per the law,” the court added.
Soon after his discharge, Elahi was taken into custody again by anti-corruption officials in a separate case accusing him of causing a loss of Rs100 million to the national exchequer and receiving kickbacks during his time as Punjab chief minister.
Later in the day, the Government of Punjab, in a tweet, strongly criticised the judicial magistrate who discharged Elahi and accused him of being biased in favour of PTI.
Meanwhile, the PTI claimed “fake cases” were being lodged against Elahi to force him to leave the party.
Elahi’s arrest on Thursday was secured after at least one failed attempt, including the one on May 29 when ACE and police officials had raided his residence.
The raiding team had used an armoured vehicle to break open the main gate of the former Punjab chief minister’s Gulberg residence and arrested 12 people, mostly his employees, from the house. Female police officers also took some women into custody.
TV footage had shown that riot police officials entered the house and used batons to beat the employees of the Elahi family.
Following the dramatic late-night raid on his residence, Punjab police on April 30 had registered a case against Elahi and others on terrorism charges for allegedly attacking ACE officials.