An accountability court in Lahore on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Moonis Elahi in a case relating to alleged kickbacks in development projects.
Judge Naseem Ahmad Virk issued the non-bailable arrest warrants for Moonis — a close aide of former prime minister Imran Khan — at the request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
At the outset of today’s hearing, officials of the anti-graft watchdog had issued an arrest warrant for Moonis — who has been living abroad for the past couple of months — on August 11 but they failed to apprehend him despite efforts.
The NAB officials were of the view that Moonis had hidden himself and urged the court to issue non-bailable arrest warrants for the PTI leader.
The corruption crusaders told the court that Moonis did not join the investigations despite being summoned and urged the court to declare him a “proclaimed offender”.
Meanwhile, the court issued non-bailable arrest warrants of Moonis for October 5 and adjourned the hearing.
According to media reports, Moonis left for Spain in the last week of December 2022, and he was still living there “to avoid political victimisation in the country”.
‘Money laundering, kickbacks’
In June 2023, the FIA registered a case against Moonis — son of former Punjab chief minister and PTI President Parvez Elahi — over charges of money laundering and receiving kickbacks.
It was alleged in the FIR that Moonis as a federal minister did corruption of billions of rupees. It was further stated that he misused his powers and committed corruption through influence in various departments.
It said that Moonis, through his frontman Aamir Sohail, deposited money into the accounts of his family and other accused.
The FIR had claimed that Sohail deposited about Rs121.65 million in the accounts of Zahra Elahi, Moonis Elahi, Ahmad Faran Khan, Zaigham Abbas, Wajid Bhatti and Aamir Fayyaz from 2019 to 2022.
