Islamabad/Lahore: PTI President Parvez Elahi has filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging his detention under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), seeking the court’s declaration of the action as “patently illegal, unlawful, and without lawful authority.”
Sardar Abdul Raziq Khan, representing Elahi, submitted the petition, urging the IHC to nullify the detention order and issue immediate directives for his release from custody.
This action follows the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) ruling from the day before, which ordered the release of the former chief minister of Punjab and placed restrictions on future arrests by government authorities or preventative detention.
However, shortly after his release from Adiala Jail, Elahi’s white SUV was intercepted near the FCC underpass in Islamabad by a team of Islamabad and Punjab police personnel. They swiftly transferred Elahi into an unmarked white car without a license plate and drove him to Islamabad.
Images of the arrest, which showed Punjab police officers in uniform and people in plainclothes roughly taking Elahi from his car, were extensively shared on social media.
Elahi claimed in his plea, which was submitted on Saturday, that he had been “subjected to successive arrests in a series of false and politically motivated cases.” He further claimed that the Lahore deputy inspector general (operations) had received instructions in Friday’s LHC order to transfer Elahi to his home under “tight security.”
The petition referred to previous verdicts, including a contempt notice issued by IHC Justice Babar Sattar to the city deputy commissioner on a petition filed by PTI leader Shehryar Afridi, who was eventually released on August 16.
The MPO detention order, according to the plea, was “based on vague, ambiguous, and absurd grounds.”
The petition claimed that Elahi had been “languishing in jail for the last more than three months” and that there was no proof he could instigate a law and order problem.
It claimed that the case was “alien to law and fictitiously created” to further detain the petitioner and compel him to accede to unlawful demands. The petition further claimed that the detention order was against the law, the Constitution, and LHC orders.
Contempt of Court Petition:
Meanwhile, Parvez Elahi’s wife has filed a contempt of court petition in the Lahore High Court, alleging that her husband was not safely transferred home as ordered by the court.
The petition has been signed by the SP high court security, DIG operations, and DIG investigation parties.
The former chief minister’s wife, Qaisara Elahi, filed the plea and asked the Lahore High Court’s chief justice to set the hearing for the same day it was filed.
Parvez Elahi, according to the petitioner, was not taken safely home by the designated police personnel despite the court’s directive. She has sought the court to launch a contempt case against the DIG investigation and activities.
Justice Amjad Rafiq will hear the petition on September 4 (Monday).
