PTI President Parvez Elahi lodged a petition on Saturday with the IslamabadHigh Court (IHC), challenging his detention under Section 3 of theMaintenance of Public Order (MPO). The petition, presented by Sardar AbdulRaziq Khan on Elahi’s behalf, calls for the court to declare the detentionas “patently illegal, unlawful, and lacking lawful authority.”
The petition urges the IHC to revoke the detention order and issueimmediate instructions for his release from custody. This move followed aLahore High Court (LHC) ruling the previous day, which ordered Elahi’srelease and imposed restrictions on potential government agency arrests orpreventive detention.
However, shortly after his release from Adiala Jail, Elahi’s white SUV wasintercepted near the FCC underpass in Islamabad by a team of Islamabad andPunjab police officers. They swiftly transferred Elahi into an unmarkedwhite car without a license plate and drove him to Islamabad. Videos of thearrest circulated widely on social media, depicting plainclothesindividuals and uniformed Punjab police officers forcibly removing Elahifrom his vehicle.
In his Saturday petition, Elahi stated that he had been subjected to”successive arrests in a series of false and politically motivated cases”and mentioned the LHC’s directives to shift him to his residence under”tight security.”
The petition argued that the MPO detention order was “based on vague,ambiguous, and absurd grounds.” Elahi had been in jail for over threemonths, and there was no evidence that he posed a threat to public safetyor order. It claimed that the case was “alien to law and fictitiouslycreated” to unlawfully detain him and compel him to comply with unlawfuldemands. Additionally, the petition contended that the detention orderviolated the rule of law, the Constitution, and the LHC’s orders.
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Section 3 of the MPO ordinance empowers the government to arrest anddetain suspected individuals if it deems necessary to prevent them fromacting in a manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance ofpublic order, for a period of up to six months at a time.
In a separate development, Parvez Elahi’s wife filed a contempt of courtpetition in the Lahore High Court, alleging that her husband was not safelytransported home as ordered by the court. The petition names the DIGoperations, DIG investigation, and SP high court security parties and callsfor contempt proceedings against them. This petition will be heard onSeptember 4 (Monday) by Justice Amjad Rafiq.
