LAHORE: Punjab Police conducted another raid at the residence of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President and former chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Monday night.
This follows a six-hour operation at his Lahore residence last Friday, where police broke the main gate of his residence using an armored vehicle but failed to find him. During the raid, the police arrested 12 people, including employees of the Chaudhry family.
The police team, along with officials from the anti-corruption department, searched the house to take the former chief minister into custody. However, they returned without an arrest after failing to find him at home. Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s son, Moonis Elahi, confirmed the development in a Twitter post where he also shared a video showing police officials standing outside the house.
Punjab police again at Kunjah House in Gujrat to conduct another raid. I have told them to give them access although they still don’t have a search warrant. pic.twitter.com/ZlEKT5CVoS
— Moonis Elahi (@MoonisElahi6) May 1, 2023
The earlier operation faced resistance, with ACE DG Sohail Zafar Chattha claiming that a petrol bomb was hurled at the raiding party who came to arrest the former chief minister.
The raid was later challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC) by Parvez Elahi’s son, Rasikh Elahi, through his lawyer Amir Saeed, making the Punjab government, ACE, and police respondents in the case.
The petitioner sought orders to restrict the police from arresting Parvez Elahi, adding that action should be taken against the officers involved in the late-night raid. Rasikh urged the court to stop authorities from arresting his family members until a decision on the petition was made.
However, the LHC rejected the plea to stop police from conducting raids. The court issued notices to IG Police and DG Anti-Corruption and summoned their responses by May 8.
