Ephedrine case: Court to indict Hanif Abbasi on August 4

Five others will also be indicted; delay due to lawyers’ strike.


Our Correspondent July 15, 2014

RAWALPINDI:


A Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court will indict former MNA Hanif Abbasi, his brother, and five others in the ephedrine case on August 4.


The CNS was unable to indict them on Monday due to an ongoing lawyers’ strike to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Earlier, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) submitted a challan in the CNS court and declared Abbasi, his brother and five employees of Grey Pharmaceuticals as accused.

Abbasi is accused of misappropriating 500kg of the controlled chemical ephedrine, obtained in 2010, and allegedly selling it to narcotics smugglers.

The challan also includes the statements of two officials of Arafaat Traders, a Karachi-based medicine distribution company to whom Abbasi claimed to have supplied 11,000 ephedrine-containing tablets.

The ANF had registered the case against the co-accused in June 2012, however, in November 2012, Abbasi obtained bail from the LHC Rawalpindi bench.

Earlier, in February 2012, the Supreme Court pointed out political involvement in the alleged illegal allocation of 9,000 kilogrammes of ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies — Berlix and Danas — and its conversion for sale in the local market.

Former federal minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Ali Musa Gillani, the son of former premier Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, were also involved in the case. Shahabuddin had already filed an application with CNS court requesting his acquittal. That case is still pending before the court.

Ephedrine can be misused as a stimulant or as a precursor while making other illegal drugs.

Abbasi, had lost the May 11, 2013 general elections from NA-56 to PTI chief Imran Khan and is currently chairman of the metro bus project.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2014.

COMMENTS (1)

angry citizen | 9 years ago | Reply

Why the heck are we showing the face of Israele soldiers?? Please remove these faces..

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ