ISLAMABAD: Moonis Elahi, the son of Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) Punjab President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, says a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team, led by Zafar Qureshi, approached concerned authorities some time back to get his passport annulled, which was a part of his continuing victimisation.
“In my absence from Pakistan, the FIA painted me as the most-wanted person and ran a consistent vilification campaign,” Moonis Elahi told The News while commenting on a story that appeared in this newspaper. “Much hype created about me clearly shows a clear-cut agenda to malign me.”
Now when, he said, he has come back and wants to join the investigation even on a trumped-up charge, the FIA is not willing to question him. “I have no doubt that the main problem is with the intention otherwise I would have been investigated and exonerated by now as there is no meat or substance in the allegation against me.”
Zafar Qureshi says his team was not questioning Moonis till March 14 fearing that by doing so it would be disobeying the Sindh High Court (SHC) direction to the accused that he should surrendered himself to the trial court and get interim bail.
Moonis said that the 21 Feb order of the SHC in which he was granted protective bail for three weeks did not bar the FIA to put question him or record his statement. This is just an excuse as the FIA wants to arrest him in any case after the expiration of the protective bail or the interim bail that he would get from the trial court, he said.
He said a day after his return from abroad he visited the FIA offices in Lahore and presented himself for investigation. “But I was told to come on the following day. When I visited the office on the given time, I was asked to come on Tuesday. And when again I went there, I was told that the FIA can’t question him or record his statement due to the SHC order.”
Moonis, who is also member of the Punjab Assembly, said that had the SHC order been a hurdle in the FIA’s opinion, the agency would not have asked him twice to see the investigators on two different days.
“In my absence from Pakistan, the FIA painted me as the most-wanted person and ran a consistent vilification campaign,” Moonis Elahi told The News while commenting on a story that appeared in this newspaper. “Much hype created about me clearly shows a clear-cut agenda to malign me.”
Now when, he said, he has come back and wants to join the investigation even on a trumped-up charge, the FIA is not willing to question him. “I have no doubt that the main problem is with the intention otherwise I would have been investigated and exonerated by now as there is no meat or substance in the allegation against me.”
Zafar Qureshi says his team was not questioning Moonis till March 14 fearing that by doing so it would be disobeying the Sindh High Court (SHC) direction to the accused that he should surrendered himself to the trial court and get interim bail.
Moonis said that the 21 Feb order of the SHC in which he was granted protective bail for three weeks did not bar the FIA to put question him or record his statement. This is just an excuse as the FIA wants to arrest him in any case after the expiration of the protective bail or the interim bail that he would get from the trial court, he said.
He said a day after his return from abroad he visited the FIA offices in Lahore and presented himself for investigation. “But I was told to come on the following day. When I visited the office on the given time, I was asked to come on Tuesday. And when again I went there, I was told that the FIA can’t question him or record his statement due to the SHC order.”
Moonis, who is also member of the Punjab Assembly, said that had the SHC order been a hurdle in the FIA’s opinion, the agency would not have asked him twice to see the investigators on two different days.
Source: The news
