Moonis Elahi case: Prosecutors to start arguments on 12th

New FIA lawyers ask for more time to study the case.

LAHORE:

District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmed on Saturday directed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutors to start their arguments on PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi’s acquittal plea on October 12.

The court also directed the prosecutors, Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam and Zia Islam, to produce any remaining prosecution witnesses at the next hearing.

Elahi’s lawyer Amjad Parvez had asked the court to order his client’s release since the FIR lodged by the FIA in connection with the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam did not mention Elahi, and prosecution witnesses had recanted testimony implicating him.

Asked to counter Parvez’s argument, Aslam sought more time, saying he had only been recently appointed to the case and needed to study it. The court gave him until October 12 and told him to also produce any other witnesses in the case.

The FIA has named three judicial magistrates as new prosecution witnesses in the revised interim challan of the case. Elahi is accused of benefitting from the embezzlement of Rs220 million from the NICL.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.