LHC orders govt to remove Parvez Elahi, family members’ names from Passport Control List

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the federal government to remove the name of PTI leader Parvez Elahi from the passport control list (PCL), along with the names of his son Rasikh Elahi and daughter-in-law Zara Elahi.

Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza pronounced the verdict on the petitions.

According to the petitioners, the names of the Elahi family members had been put on the PCL “illegally”.

During the hearing, the federal government’s counsel opposed the request to remove the names from the PCL.

In May, the LHC granted Parvez bail and ordered his release in a case related to an alleged illegal appointment made in the Punjab Assembly during his stint as the chief minister.

The court order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said the case against Elahi called for further investigation into his guilt and his bail petition was thus being allowed with bail set at Rs500,000 with two sureties each in the like amount.

Elahi was initially arrested in the case of recruitments to the Punjab Assembly on June 3 last year. The case pertained to illegal recruitments of 12 Grade-17 officers in the provincial assembly, with Elahi being accused of getting the results of the testing service changed to select the candidates of his choice.

He was then arrested on September 18 in the case of allegedly illegally appointing Muhammad Khan Bhatti, following which a Lahore court sent him on judicial remand.

In October, a Lahore district and sessions court had granted police Elahi’s two-day physical remand in the case. Days later, the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment had informed the court that it had allegedly recovered Rs4.1 million from the ex-CM’s house in the case.

The next month, a judicial magistrate had discharged Bhatti in the case but he remained in jail as he was on judicial remand in other corruption cases. Later the same month, Elahi was denied bail in the case.