Ephedrine case: CEOs of two pharma companies detained

Anti-Narcotics Force sends Hasham Khan and Ehsanur Rehman on physical remand till July 21.

RAWALPINDI:

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) sent the chief executives of two pharmaceutical companies, accused of involvement in the ephedrine quota case, on judicial remand for 14 days, on Saturday.

ANF Special Magistrate Shafqatullah Khan sent Cann Pharmaceutical Multan chief executive Hasham Khan and Florence Pharma Multan chief executive Ehsanur Rehman to the Adiala Jail till July 21, following four days of interrogation.

The chief executives were arrested by ANF on July 3 for their alleged hand in the case of illegal quotas of ephedrine, a controlled chemical substance.

According to the investigations, the Cann Company obtained a quota of ephedrine for export to Iraq and handed it over to the Berlex Company for the manufacturing of tablets.

Later, Berlex got the quota converted for local consumption after the Cann Company maintained that the export demand was no longer in the field.

The Florence Pharma Company, on the other hand, is accused of not maintaining any record of distribution of the tablets containing ephedrine in the local market.

In a related development Special Judge Control of Narcotics Substance directed the ANF to record the statement of a former director of the Danas Pharmaceutical Company Islamabad as an approver in the case.

Former director Rizwan Khan approached the trial court to record his statement after being accused of managing and distributing huge quotas of the medicine it in local market without any record.

ANF officials, privy to the investigations, told The Express Tribune that the arrested chief executive of Danas, Ansar Khan, had also given his consent to become an approver in the case and was likely to file an application with the trial court to record his statement.

Earlier, former health director general Dr Rasheed Jumma accused former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin and the former premier’s  son Ali Musa Gilani of pressurising him and other health officials to allocate excessive quotas of the chemical for export and later converting it for local consumption.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2012.