In a long legal battle, where the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) contested the magisterial court’s decision to send former chief minister of Punjab and PTI Central President, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on judicial remand instead of a physical remand, Elahi’s legal team gained ground as he was resent to judicial lockup on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Elahi was arrested by the ACE once again, this time, on alleged charges of conducting illegal recruitments within the Punjab Assembly during his tenure as Punjab CM. Prior to this, Elahi had already been discharged by two separate magisterial courts in two different FIRs registered against him by the ACE.
The legal battle on the justifiability of Elahi’s judicial remand between the ACE and the former CM’s legal team started when a magisterial court turned down ACE’s request of increasing Elahi’s physical remand period and instead, sent him on a 14-days judicial remand. Subsequently, the ACE challenged this decision in district and sessions court, where the judge suspended the court’s previous order of judicial remand and referred the case to the magisterial court.
Meanwhile, Elahi’s legal team challenged the district court’s order in the Lahore High Court (LHC), which suspended it and issued an order seeking responses from the concerned quarters.
As proceedings commenced, the Investigation Officer sought to extend Elahi’s physical remand during the course of the investigation.
