A heavy deployment of the Punjab Police raided the Lahore residence of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi late on Friday night, failing to arrest him, but triggering condemnations from the party over harassment of its workers and senior leaders.
Lasting nearly six hours, the operation commenced around midnight and concluded at 6 a.m. after Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Director General Sohail Zafar Chattha and the police contingent returned without any success. Speaking with media, Chattha maintained that the police had not acted illegally, adding that they had been “forced” to react after a “petrol bomb” was thrown on their forces from within Elahi’s residence.
After several hours of demanding that Elahi submit to arrest, the raiding team used an armored vehicle to break open the main gate of his residence. Riot police officials subsequently entered the house, using batons to push back employees of the Elahi family, and thoroughly searching the residence. However, they failed to locate Elahi. During the operation, police also attempted to search the home of Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain—whose house adjoins Elahi’s—but were resisted by his family. The PMLQ is a coalition partner of the ruling alliance.
During the operation, police arrested at least 27 people from the scene—including employees and individuals protesting against Elahi’s arrest attempt—while maintaining that the PTI leader did not have pre-arrest bail. However, Elahi’s lawyer Amir Saeed told media that his client had secured pre-arrest bail from the Lahore High Court (LHC) until May 6—though the order had yet to be issued. The police, meanwhile, told media they did not require a search warrant, adding the arrest attempt was the result of a case registered against Elahi in Gujranwala for which he had not secured bail.
Condemnations
In a posting on Twitter, Elahi’s son—former minister Moonis Elahi who has been in virtual self-exile in Spain for several months now—said Punjab Police were trying to arrest his father in a case that he had already secured bail against. Lamenting that the “rule of law” did not exist in Pakistan, he stressed that the bail hearing had been covered by all media outlets.
PTI chief Imran Khan, similarly, condemned the arrest in a posting on Twitter. “We are seeing the dismantling of democracy in [Pakistan] before our eyes,” he claimed. “There is no respect for Constitution, SC verdicts, or fundamental rights of the [people]—only law of jungle,” he added. Declaring that enough is enough, Khan announced that he would present a roadmap to the nation on how to resist the destruction of Pakistan’s Constitution and democracy.
The raid came within hours of the second round of negotiations between the PTI and the ruling alliance to resolve the impasse on simultaneous general elections nationwide. During the talks, the PTI reportedly demanded that the government stop arresting its workers. In a posting on Twitter, PTI Senior Vice President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain questioned how the talks could be expected to succeed if such arrests continued. “Raid at Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s house show that Ishaq Dar, Saad Rafique and Azam Tarar have no value in their party. We strongly condemn the raid,” he said in a tweet.