According to the petitioner, the LHC sought the recovery of Elahi’s former principal secretary as part of the government’s campaign to victimize Muhammad Bhatti and two others because of their PML-Q affiliation.
LAHORE:
Muhammad Khan Bhatti, the principal secretary of former Punjab chief minister Parvaiz Elahi, and two other people are the subject of a plea that was submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday.
According to the petitioner Kausar Perveen, the former principal secretary’s wife, the detainees are being politically victimised and humiliated because of their devotion to the PML-Q.
Additionally, Sajid Tanveer and Shahzad Akhtar, two other detenues, have been requested to be located, recovered, and then produced before the court in the petition.
She argued in her appeal that her husband had a spotless career and had always carried out his responsibilities with the utmost faithfulness and skill. However, the coalition government led by competing parties had victimised him because of his family’s political history and affiliation with the PML-Q.
The petitioner claimed that her husband had informed her two weeks prior that political competitors had chosen to falsely accuse him of crimes and intended to order investigations or file fake criminal charges against him as a result of his affiliation. He had stated that they intended to carry out this secretly and covertly to prevent him from approaching the courts to request bail prior to arrest.
The petitioner further stated that she learned that her husband’s name had been added on a stop-list by an investigating agency on January 19, 2023, through media sources.
He then submitted a plea asking to have his name removed from the stop-list and asking for more information regarding any open investigations or the filing of any FIRs, she continued.
Following his plea, the respondents—the head of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the director general of the anti-corruption division—released the files from the two FIRs that had been filed against him.
The petitioner claimed that her husband had last spoken to her on February 6 and informed her that anonymous individuals posing as FIA and Anti-Corruption Establishment agents had stopped his car and arrested him.
She stated that Sajid Tanveer and Shahzad Akhtar, the other two detainees, had not spoken to each other before to today.
She requested directives to be given to the DG FIA, the Punjab government, the DG anti-corruption, and the Punjab IGP to locate, rescue, and present the inmates before the court.
