LAHORE: A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday adjourned hearing of an intra-court appeal of PTI President Parvez Elahi in a corruption case as his counsel sought time to open arguments on the competency of the appeal.

Advocate Aftab Ahmad Bajwa appeared on behalf of Mr Elahi and said he would take one day to present his arguments on the maintainability of the appeal. He asked the bench to adjourn the hearing till Wednesday.

However, the bench, headed by Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry, observed that it would resume hearing on Oct 16.

The other day, the bench had first recused itself from the appeal but later changed its mind and chose to decide the appeal`s maintainability. The appeal was filed against the decision of a single bench that had set aside a judicial magistrate`s order of discharging Mr Elahi. On Oct 3, a single bench set aside the magistrate`s decision of discharging Mr Elahi with a direction to review the ruling.

The prosecutor general had challenged Mr Elahi`s exoneration in the case registered by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) regarding corruption in the funds for development projects to be executed in the Gujranwala division. The prosecution argued that the magistrate had no power to discharge the respondent.-Staff Reporter