LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Monday directed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi to approach relevant authorities against his detention.
“You should file an appeal with the district commissioner; he will hear your plea and issue an order on it,” LHC’s Justice Ali Baqar Najafi said while hearing a petition against Elahi’s detention order.
Elahi’s lawyer contended that the court could overrule the order in line with precedents, but Justice Najafi told him that he could challenge the relevant authorities’ decision in the court.
The PTI president’s lawyers then withdrew the plea.
The Punjab government issued orders Sunday to detain the former provincial chief minister under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order, 1960, for 30 days.
Elahi then moved the court, seeking nullification of the order as he has been behind bars for around a month.
In the plea submitted through Elahi’s lawyer Amir Saeed in the LHC on Monday, the ex-chief minister said his detention order was against the court’s ruling to release him.
“…[I have] no other adequate remedy provided by the law except to invoke the constitutional jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, therefore, the instant petition,” the plea mentioned.
Elahi prayed that the court accept his petition and declare the government’s detention order “unlawful, void, against the law, and of na legal effect”.
He also urged the court to direct the caretaker Punjab government, the home secretary, and the Punjab inspector-general of prisons to take action against SP prisons for district jails.
It may be noted that Elahi was initially arrested on June 1 in a graft case amid a crackdown on PTI in the wake of the May 9 protests. He was rearrested multiple times after this in different cases, including the two money laundering cases.
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