Rawalpindi – A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Wednesday allowed former Punjab chief minister Pervez Elahi not to appear before an accountability court hearing a corruption reference against him.
Justice Muhammad Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry of the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench suspended the order of the Accountability Court No. 1 asking the ex-Punjab chief minister to be present in the court on every date of hearing.
Filed through Advocate Sardar Abdul Raziq Khan, the petition has asked the LHC to suspend the accountability court’s order on medical grounds. The petitioner has maintained that he was an elderly man aging over 80 with multiple medical complications. Being resident of Lahore, he could not travel to Rawalpindi to attend the hearings in the Takht Parri corruption reference filed against him to political victimize him.
Pervez Elahi further claimed in the petition before the LHC that the trial court dismissed his application under section 540-A of Criminal Procedure Code on July 9. The section allows a court to dispense with the personal attendance of an accused during an inquiry or trial if the court is satisfied that the accused is incapable of being present, provided the accused is represented by a pleader.
The petitioner said that the trial court totally ignored the medical prescriptions and certificates duly issued by professor doctors of Services Hospital Lahore while dismissing the application for exemption.
The division bench suspended the order of the accountability court granting Elahi the permission to skip the next date of hearing fixed on July 17 (today). He will however be represented by Muhammad Sami Ullah, who has been appointed as a pleader on behaof of Elahi. The LHC also issued notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to respond to the petition filed by the ex-Punjab chief minister and adjourned the hearing till September 15.
As per the details of the reference, the NAB has accused Bahria Town of illegal possessing 750 acres of land in revenue estate of Rakh Takht Pari. The land is estimated to be worth Rs355 billion. The NAB has alleged that the Bahria Town in connivance with different government functionaries embezzled the land and illegally occupied the state land in 2006.
The other accused in the reference include Ch Parvez Elahi, then Punjab chief minister Punjab; Javed Majid, then secretary Forest, Wildlife & Fisheries Department Punjab; Ghulam Muhammad Sikandar, then principal secretary to Punjab CM; Malik Riaz Hussain, CEO Bahria Town; Ahmed Ali Riaz, director Bahria Town; Mehboob Shaukat, director Bahria Town; M Jahangir Ghauri, then Chief Conservator of Forests, North-ern Zone, Rawalpindi; Jamil Ahmed, then DFO Rawalpindi; Muhammad Irfan Elahi, then DCO Rawalpin-di; Syed Jamal Mustafa, then EDO-R Rawalpindi; Muhammad Asif Qureshi, then DOR Rawalpindi; Anwar ul Haq, then Tehsildar Settlement Rawalpindi; Shafqat Ali, then Girdawar in Rawalpindi; Mirza Tasawar Hussain, then patwari in Rawalpindi; Muhammad Nawaz, then Naib Tehsildar in Rawalpindi; Khalid Masood, then Tehsildar in Rawalpindi; Muhammad Abdul Zahoor, then Naib Tehsildar in Rawal-pindi; and Bahria Town through its directors.