LAHORE: Islamabad police arrested PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi shortly after the Lahore High Court ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to release him.

The capital city police took him into custody near FC College underpass on Lahore Canal Road under Maintenance of Public Order (3 MPO) when he was moving back to his residence from the high court. Police officials took him out from PTI lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa's vehicle forcibly and went away. The former CM will be shifted to Islamabad through a helicopter.

Reacting to the development, Moonis Elahi said his father was taken into custody as he entered the street leading to his house. court orders were being defied publicly, he slammed the authorities.

"After high court’s orders and on the Judge’s instructions police including court security were taking my father home. As the car entered our street, it was stopped and he was abducted. If court orders are going to be ridiculed like this maybe they should officially declare it," he wrote on social media platform X.

The high court had ordered that the former Punjab chief minister will not be arrested in any undisclosed case.

Earlier, Lahore High Court's Justice Amjad Rafique had warned that if PTI leader Elahi was not presented before the court, the NAB director general would have to face the consequences. 

On Friday, the NAB team presented Elahi in court amid strict security. 

As the hearing started, the high court ordered release of Parvez Elahi and barred the LEAs from arresting him in any other case. 

The court issued these orders while hearing PTI leader Elahi’s petition. During the hearing, Justice Amjad Rafiq said the accountability court had been told that the intra-court appeal had been rejected. The NAB prosecutor said it was not in his knowledge.

Justice Rafiq said there would be a complete inquiry and ordered immediate release of Elahi.