Cops Use Armored Vehicle Carrier to Break into Ex-Punjab Province CM Parvez Elahi’s Lahore Home

A large contingent of police officers from Punjab province raided former Punjab province chief minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party president Parvez Elahi’s residence to arrest him late Friday evening, according to GeoNews.

The drama outside his Lahore residence ended after the Director General of Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), left the scene along with his fellow officers.

He alleged that his team was pelted with petrol bombs when they came to arrest Elahi.

The police cordoned off the Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi Road and then an armoured personnel carrier (APC) broke the main gate of the residence after people inside the residence resisted the police’s order to open the gates so that they could enter and arrest Elahi, according to GeoNews.

Police said that they were pelted with stones from PTI supporters when they tried to enter the PTI president’s residence.

The Anti-Corruption Establish­ment (ACE) officials came to Elahi’s residence to arrest him in a corruption case. They said a team from Gujranwala has come to arrest the former chief minister.

Despite the former chief minister’s legal team saying that his pre-arrest bail until May 6 was already being taken from a court, the ACE team refused to relent and barged inside, according to GeoNews.

There was also a team led by female officers who also went inside.

According to the Dawn and GeoNews, at least 27 people were arrested and the female police officers also took some women into custody. Those arrested were mostly Elahi’s employees.

This is the third time this year that the PTI president’s residence was raided. In February, Elahi’s house was raided twice.

Experts speaking to GeoNews pointed out that such a move will only increase the popularity of the PTI and pointed out that those in the government, who also face several cases, never were subjected to such late-night raids.

Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan and chief of the PTI, condemned the late night raid and said he was concerned about the ‘dismantling of democracy in Pakistan’.

He said his own house was attacked in a similar manner earlier this year and said all of these incidents are part of the ‘London Plan’ – referring to his predecessor Nawaz Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-(N)), who cannot stand for polls due to corruption but is accused of running the government through his brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

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