——- Directs district and sessions Court Judge to present Elahi in High Court
——- NAB files appeal in LHC against single bench’s order
——- Elahi was brought to PIMS hospital for ‘routine check-up
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) issued a show-cause notice for contempt of court to Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Dr Akbar Nasir Khan while hear-ing a plea for PTI President Parvez Elahi’s production in court. On Friday, Islamabad police had re-arrested Elahi near his residence soon after the LHC had set him free with a restraining order against his possible arrest by an agency or preven-tive detention.
An Islamabad police team, assisted by Lahore police, had intercepted a white SUV near the FCC underpass in which Elahi was travelling with lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa to his house and dragged him into a white car with no licence plate.
Visuals of the arrest had gone viral on social media and were condemned by the Pakistan Bar Council among others.
The Islamabad police had said the former chief minister, who was later moved to Attock Jail, was taken into custody under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order.
After his re-arrest on Friday, Elahi had approached the Islamabad High Court for release while his wife, Qaisara Elahi, had filed two pleas in the LHC, seeking directions for relevant authorities to present Elahi in court and contempt proceedings against Punjab police offi-cials on grounds of “wilful disobedience”.
Taking up Qaisara’s plea for Elahi’s production in court today, LHC’s Justice Amjad Rafiq summoned Punjab IG Dr Usman Anwar and Lahore Capital City Police Office (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana.
The plea, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, named the Punjab police chief, CCPO, the caretaker government of Punjab, the provincial home secretary, DIG investiga-tion, DIG operations, and SP Model Town as respondents in the case.
It prayed that the respondents be directed to produce Elahi in court to the petitioner’s sat-isfaction that her husband was not in illegal custody. It also requested that the former chief minister be released if the court found him to be in “unlawful custody”.
According to the court order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the judge said that the Islamabad district magistrate had no authority to issue an arrest or detention order for someone residing and present in another province, adding that the Islamabad police “interfered into the jurisdiction of this court and also violated the order of this court dated September 9”.
It added that if the Islamabad police were acting on the district magistrate’s order then they could have reported back with the LHC’s restraining order.
“Arrest of detenu was not justified in any circumstances which is illegal, therefore, when the arrest was illegal, the detention of detenu also becomes as one without lawful authori-ty,” the order reads.
The order appointed the Attock district and sessions judge as the LHC’s bailiff to recover Elahi from the Attock Jail superintendent’s custody, ordering the latter to hand over custo-dy.
The judge further directed the Rawalpindi city police officer and Attock district police of-ficer to produce Elahi in court on Tuesday, adding that the Attock district and sessions judge, along with a magistrate, would supervise the process of the PTI president’s safe transport to court.
The judge also ordered the Attock Jail superintendent to appear in person tomorrow and explained “why he has disregarded and violated the order of this court”.
Lastly, the order said the Islamabad police illegally arrested Elahi; violated, disregarded and wilfully flouted the Sept 1 order of the court and had thereby impeded the course of justice and process of law which amounted to contempt of court.
“Separate proceedings under Contempt of Court Ordinance against inspector general of po-lice, Islamabad are also being initiated,” the order reads.
At the outset of the hearing, the court summoned IG Anwar and the CCPO in person by 11am. However, the government lawyer sought time till 2pm.
“If the IG fails to appear, the court will issue an order,” the judge said.
A little after 2pm, IG Anwar appeared in court along with Punjab Advocate General (AG) Khalid Ishaq.
Addressing them, Justice said: “The purpose for summoning you is to bring facts to light.”
For his part, the Punjab said he was not responsible for the actions of Islamabad police. “I am only responsible for any contempt committed by my team.”
He told the court he would launch an investigation into the matter at hand anew. “I will get this matter fully investigated,” the Punjab IG said, seeking more time from the court to submit a reply.
Upon the court inquiring about Elahi’s whereabouts, the official expressed ignorance. Similarly, AG Ishaq also said he had no information about Elahi’s location.
The Punjab IG said Islamabad police could share information about Elahi at present.
At that, the judge observed that Elahi was kept in Attock jail.
Elahi’s lawyer, Latif Khosa, contested the Punjab IG’s statement, saying it was “based on lies”.
But, the IG maintained that Punjab police were unaware of Elahi’s whereabouts.
Later the court issued a notice to the Islamabad IG, seeking an explanation from him on why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The high court also directed the relevant district and sessions court judge to appear before it along with Elahi.
Meanwhile, his son Moonis Elahi said the PTI president was taken to the Pakistan Insti-tute of Medical Sciences from Attock Jail and discharged at 1pm.
“He was sent back to Attock jail. The drive is not more than one hour. It has been 3.5 hours now and he isn’t back,” Moonis posted on X. –Agencies
