RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD:
A local magistrate extended the remand of two pharmaceutical companies’ officials by three more days on Tuesday. The obtained physical remand of the chief executives of the two pharmaceutical companies.
Duty Magistrate Muhammad Ajmal Raja accepted Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) plea seeking extension in the physical remand of Danas Pharmaceutical Chief Executive Farooq Chaudhry and Berlex Lab Chief Executive Iftikhar Khan Babar arrested in connection with the ephedrine quota scandal.
The ANF investigation officer, while asking for further remand, said the two men were being interrogated about the 9,000kg of ephedrine they had imported and its consumption.
The arrested CEOs denied charges of misusing the controlled chemical and said they had submitted all data regarding its consumption.
However, the ANF informed the court that all the documents about the consumption of the chemical had been found to be falsified.
The two men were arrested after the Lahore High Court dismissed their plea for bail before arrest and for the quashment of the FIR registered against them by the ANF.
Meanwhile, the ANF has obtained warrants from a trial court for the arrest of former Health Director-General Dr Rasheed Jooma and two directors of the pharmaceutical companies after their bail pleas were rejected.
Prime Minister’s son MNA Ali Musa Gilani had also recorded his statement before the ANF and denied the allegations that he influenced health officials to approve the ephedrine quota allocation.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 2nd, 2012.
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