FIA issues notices to Rasikh Elahi, wife in money laundering case

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has issued show cause notices to Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi’s son, Rasikh Elahi, and his wife Zahra as well as Moonis Elahi’s wife Tehreem in a money laundering case.

According to a local news channel, the FIA issued notices under the Money Laundering Act 2010 following a court order. According to the sources, the FIA also issued show cause notices to other co-accused in the case, including Qaiser Iqbal Bhatti and Abid Bhatti.

In the show-cause notices, the FIA asked all the accused for money trail and evidence of the properties made through money laundering.All the accused are directed to respond to the show cause notices at the earliest.

It is pertinent to note that the FIA registered an FIR against Pervaiz Elahi’s son after the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly. The agency accused him of committing money laundering of over Rs30 million.

According to the FIA, the State Bank of Pakistan had detected some transactions involving huge amounts of money in the bank accounts of Qaisar Bhatti (a lower cadre employee of the Punjab Assembly) and three others. From this amount, some amount has been transferred to Rasikh and other Elahi family members. The sources said the FIA has made some progress in the investigation against Pervaiz Elahi and his family members.

Earlier this week, a Lahore court had ordered the freezing of their properties and accounts worth billions of rupees. The suspects have been asked to produce the money trail of the properties accumulated through alleged money laundering.