Lahore court grants post-arrest bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf President Parvez Elahi

Islamabad [Pakistan], June 20 : An anti-corruption court in Lahore on Tuesday approved the post-arrest bail of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi in a case related to illegal recruitments in Pakistan's Punjab Assembly, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.

Earlier this month, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in Gujranwala arrested Parvez Elahi on allegations of taking Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 15 million in bribes as the speaker of the provincial assembly for making out-of-merit appointments on grade-17 posts in the provincial assembly.

Subsequently, Elahi was sent to jail on judicial remand for 14 days. On Monday, the court reserved its verdict on the PTI president's petition for post-arrest bail after the state prosecutor and Elahi's lawyer Rana Intizar made their arguments, according to Dawn report.

While announcing the verdict on Tuesday, Special Judge Ali Raza Awan granted post-arrest bail to the former Punjab Chief Minister against surety bonds worth Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 1 million, Dawn reported.

During the hearing, Special Prosecutor Abdul Samad said that Elahi was directly guilty in the case and opposed his bail while Intizar insisted that his client had no role in the allegations levelled against him. Elahi is still at the district jail in Lahore and is yet to be released, as per the news report.

Elahi's bail comes a day after his cousin and PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain visited the former in prison. Hussain visited the district jail along with his son Salik Hussain. PML-Q chief said that the former chief minister was unwell and his feet were swollen.

On June 1, Elahi was first arrested by ACE officials from outside his house in a corruption case. However, the court called the charges against Elahi not "well-founded" and discharged him, Dawn reported.

Soon after his discharge, Elahi was taken into custody again by anti-corruption officials in two cases, accusing him of causing a loss of PKR 100 million to the national exchequer and receiving kickbacks during his time as Punjab chief executive, as per the Dawn report.

Last week, Elahi was produced before Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Afzal's court in Gujranwala. After listening to ACE and Elahi's lawyer's arguments, the court discharged Elahi in both cases and ordered his immediate release if he was not required in any other case.