LAHORE   -    The Anti-Corruption Establish­ment (ACE) Additional Director General Waqas Hassan Thurs­day, on the direction of the La­hore High Court (LHC), publical­ly apologised besides submitting written apology in the court for raiding the residence of Paki­stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Pres­ident Chaudhry Parvez Elahi de­spite the protective bail.

Mr Justice Tariq Saleem Shaikh re-heard the petition filed by former chief minister Parvez Elahi against the police operation at his residence de­spite the protective bail from the Lahore High Court. The public prosecutor sought an unconditional apology from the court on behalf of the ad­ditional DG ACE, on which the court ordered to submit a writ­ten and public apology.

Parvez Elahi’s lawyer Aamir Saeed raised an objection on non-appearance of additional DG in the court in his personal capacity. According to the law­yer, the court had summoned the DG Anti-Corruption and Additional DG Anti-Corruption Waqas Hassan in personal ca­pacity, the court had also sum­moned SSP Operations and SP but the officers ignored the court orders by not appearing before the court. Elahi’s lawyer claimed to have produced the court bail orders when anti-cor­ruption and police entered Ela­hi’s residence. The officials re­fused to obey the court orders, the lawyer accused. The law­yer further said that the court granted protective bail but the police still continued to harass him. The police raid at Parvez Elahi’s house was a clear viola­tion of the court order, he main­tained. The lawyer demanded the court to initiate contempt of court action against anti-cor­ruption and police officials for violating the court orders.

Parvez Elahi’s lawyer Aamir Saeed said, “We were ready to give an affidavit that the official who invaded Elahi’s residence asked for arrest in the same case in which he already had taken a protective bail,” adding that there’s a video evidence avail­able to second his claim. The le­gal counsel further argued in the court that if the court doesn’t stop the violation of the court orders then this precedent will continue in the same passion, pleading that everyone will vio­late the sanctity of the court if the court doesn’t take action on the matter. The court ordered the additional DG anti-corrup­tion, including others, to sub­mit an unconditional apology in writing and directed the officials to apologise in public. Later, the court adjourned the hearing till Friday. Following the directions of the LHC, Additional DG Anti-Corruption Waqas Hassan apol­ogised publically through media for raiding Parvez Elahi’s house during an interim bail.

PTI REACTION TO ACE ADDL DG APOLOGY

Fawad Chaudhry expressed his reaction to the DG Anti-Corrup­tion’s apology on Twitter. Taking to twitter, former federal minis­ter and PTI senior leader Fawad Chaudhry reacted to additional DG anti-corruption public apol­ogy for the raid on the house of Parvez Elahi and said that the apology from additional DG an­ti-corruption was not enough. Fawad in his tweet demanded that LHC will have to put two or three people like additional DG anti-corruption to jail, otherwise this spectacle will not end, he de­manded. Adding to this, he wrote the officers who arrested Has­san Niazi despite protective bail should be held accountable