Jurisdiction issue: Drug court refuses to take up ephedrine case

ANF asked to take case elsewhere

RAWALPINDI: After a ruling by the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench declaring ephedrine as ‘non-narcotics’, a drug court in Rawalpindi has refused to accept a charge-sheet against 10 suspects allegedly involved in misappropriation of ephedrine quotas.

On Nov 27, LHC judges Justice Baqir Najfi and Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq ruled that ephedrine did not fall in the category of narcotics and the CNS thus lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. It also directed the ANF to take the case to any competent court.

When the case was taken up at the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court on Thursday, Abdur Rasheed Sheikh, a lawyer representing 10 suspects including Makhdom Shahabuddin and Ali Musa Gillani, argued that after the LHC ruling, the court was not competent to hear the case. He also provided a copy of the ruling to the bench.

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) counsel, meanwhile, opposed him and argued that the LHC ruling was about only one suspect --- Iftikhar Babar --- and not the other suspects.

But Sheikh argued that the LHC ruling was regarding ephedrine and the high court had directed the ANF to take the case to another court.

He said if the CNS court did not act accordingly, it would be tantamount to refusing to accept a high court order.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge ruled that the CNS court could not hear the case any further and directed the reader to return all files and charge-sheets related to the case to the ANF.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2014.