An accountability court in Lahore on Monday extended the physical remand of Punjab’s former chief minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi till August 29, in a case related to alleged kickbacks in development projects.
Earlier, officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced Elahi before Accountability Court Judge Zubair Shahzad Kiyani on the expiry of his physical remand, APP reported.
Prosecutor Waris Janjua pleaded with the court to extend the physical remand of the PTI leader for another 14 days to complete the investigations.
Giving his arguments, Elahi”s counsel, Advocate Amjad Parvez, submitted that the Supreme Court had ordered the Lahore High Court (LHC) to decide the matter of his arrest till August 21. He stated that the LHC had not heard the matter so far and its hearing was scheduled to be held today.
“We have no objection if the court approves Elahi’s physical remand for a reasonable time,” he added.
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He also requested the court to allow a medical check-up of Elahi by his personal doctor.
Subsequently, the court extended the physical remand of Elahi for another eight days and ordered for producing him on August 29.
NAB accused Elahi of receiving over Rs1 billion as kickbacks through intermediaries in more than 200 development projects of Gujrat district, during his second term as chief minister Punjab.
Elahi was initially arrested on June 1 from outside his residence in an Rs70 million graft case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district.
Since then, the former Punjab chief minister has been behind bars on various charges. During a span of around two and half months, the PTI leader was released multiple times on the courts’ orders but was re-arrested immediately every time.
The PTI president was taken into custody during a crackdown launched against the party’s leadership following the May 9 riots.
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