IHC orders police to release PTI’s Parvez Elahi

Islamabad, Sept 5: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended the detention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi under 3-MPO (Maintenance of Public Order) and ordered the Islamabad police to release him.
Elahi, the former Punjab chief minister, was rearrested under 3-MPO by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police shortly after being released by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the Lahore High Court (LHC) on September 1.
The PTI president had filed a petition in the IHC against his arrest by Islamabad police under 3-MPO, according to Geo news.
IHC Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard the plea that sought the declaration of Elahi’s detention under the 3-MPO order “null and void”.
The 3-MPO order was issued by the district magistrate of Islamabad.
The Elahi’s lawyer, during his arguments, said his client has been in jail for three months and questioned how he could possibly create a law and situation in custody.
He also read out the 3-MPO order in the court and shared that his client has not issued any statement in the last four months.
The counsel said that Elahi has no case registered against him in Islamabad and he was discharged from the anti-corruption case.
The IHC also directed Elahi to avoid giving any statement until the next hearing, Geo news reports.
Elahi was initially arrested on June 1 from outside his residence in a Rs70 million graft case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district.
(UNI)