LAHORE – A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday denied bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Moonis Elahi in the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) Scam case, following which Elahi turned himself in to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Talking to reporters outside the FIA’s Lahore office, Elahi denied the corruption charges against him and said he would be “honourably acquitted by the grace of God”. Elahi said he trusted the judiciary but not the FIA. He said he would face all the allegations and was sure he would be proven innocent in the end.
He alleged that FIA Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi had an enmity with his family and wanted to “vent his malice” by implicating Elahi in two cases. A confident Elahi was greeted by a mass of party workers outside the FIA office, who shouted their support for him. Protests broke out against Elahi’s arrest throughout Punjab including Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Wazirabad, Kamonki, Bhai Pheru, Phool Nagar, Gujrat, Okara, Sheikupura, Kasur and Sargodha.
The biggest rally was held at Kamla Chowk in Lahore where thousands of Elahi’s supporters turned out to protest his arrest by burning tyres and staging a sit-in. PML-Q parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Zaheer-ud-Din said Elahi’s arrest was proof of the fact that the PML-Q had not struck a deal with the Pakistan People’s Party government.
Earlier on Thursday, a division bench of the LHC rejected Elahi’s bail petition. Elahi’s counsel SM Zafar told the court that all allegations against his client were baseless and the FIA had no proof of his involvement in the scam. However, Zafar Qureshi told the court that the agency had evidence and witnesses against the accused and its investigation had led to the conclusion that Elahi was involved in the scam.
The bench, comprising LHC Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan rejected Elahi’s the bail petition after hearing the arguments. Elahi, however, was not arrested at the time and he voluntarily showed up at the FIA office later to turn himself in.
