Pervaiz Elahi, a former chief minister of Punjab and current PML-Q leader, apologised on Thursday to the family of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, who was detained earlier this week on sedition-related charges.
Elahi criticised PTI leaders for “misleading” party leader and former prime minister Imran Khan in a statement to the media earlier today. The former chief minister of Punjab stated that he had done his best to persuade the PTI chairman not to dissolve the provincial legislature.
He has stated that “those who were close to Khan sahab [are accountable] for undermining the roots of the party.”
Elahi had stated, “If he been detained sooner, things would have been better,” without mentioning Fawad.
آج تقریر کے دوران پی ٹی آئی رہنما فواد چودھری کے متعلق جو گفتگو ہوئی اس پر معذرت خواہ ہوں. فواد چودھری کی پوری فیملی سے ہمارے دیرینہ تعلقات ہیں. میرے بیان سے ان کی فیملی کو دکھ پہنچا جس پر میں ان سے معذرت خواہ ہوں
— Ch Parvez Elahi (@ChParvezElahi) January 26, 2023
Elahi afterwards apologised for his comments and mentioned that he had known Fawad Chaudhary’s family for a very long time.
I apologise to his family for the hurt my comment has caused,” he stated.
After the Election Commission of Pakistan filed a FIR against him at Islamabad’s Kohsar police station for “threaten[ing]]” commission members, including the head, and their families, and “inciting violence against a constitutional institution,” Fawad was arrested on Wednesday morning from Lahore.
Potentially dealing a blow to the party in which he holds the vice presidency was the arrest of the vocal opponent of the PDM alliance, which is in power.
Later that evening, a court in Islamabad granted the PTI leader a two-day physical remand and turned him over to police.
