KARACHI: Moonis Elahi Wednesday said he has no connection with the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) scam case. “I am being dragged into this case,” he said while talking to mediapersons at the Karachi airport.
These accusations were a way to dishonour him, his family and his political party, and he came back to answer his accusers, said Moonis, who arrived in Karachi to face corruption allegations in NICL scam case. Moonis Elahi, son of former chief minister Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, was an accused in the NICL scandal case and had been granted protective bail by the Sindh High Court.
About Zafar Qureshi, the chief investigation officer of NICL case, Moonis alleged that one of his (Qureshi) brothers wanted to become the Chief Secretary of Punjab during Pervaiz Elahi’s term as Chief Minister and another brother wanted to get a PML-Q ticket. However, he was denied the PML-N ticket. Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has frozen the assets of Moonis Elahi’s company.
The FIA also lodged a petition to launch an investigation against an employee of the Pakistani High Commission in Britain who had endorsed the statement of the second accused in the NICL scam Mohsin Warriach. —INP
Our correspondent adds from Lahore: Additional district and sessions’ judge Yousaf Aujla set aside order of a magisterial court regarding initiating proceedings against Moonis Elahi to declare him proclaimed offender (PO) in the NICL scam.
The court also set aside orders of issuing arrest warrants for Moonis by the same magistrate dated January 28. The court passed the order on a petition seeking suspension of the magisterial court’s order regarding initiating proceedings against Moonis for declaring him proclaimed offender.
Earlier, the court had sought comments from FIA in this regard. On Wednesday, state lawyer appeared before the court and submitted the record. The court after examining the record set aside orders of magistrate Irfan Basra he passed on January 28 and February 8.
As per case details, Advocate Aamir Saeed Rana, counsel of Moonis, had filed a revision petition in the court contending that FIA has misguided the court while getting arrest warrants for Moonis on January 28.
He said that FIA had summoned Moonis to join investigation in the NICL scam and a representative of his client had submitted a written reply to the FIA on January 27 wherein it stated that his client was abroad and will join investigation within seven days but FIA got arrest warrants on the very next day which is a violation of the law.
He pointed out that since FIA had obtained arrest warrants by misguiding the court, therefore, subsequent proceedings of declaring Moonis PO was nullity in the eye of law. Earlier, judicial magistrate Irfan Basra had started proceeding to declare PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi as proclaimed offender in the National Insurance Corporation scam.
The court had directed authorities to affix written proclamation at the residence of Moonis Elahi, requiring him to appear before court in one month time. The court also ordered to publish advertisement in this regard in daily newspapers to inform the accused.
