RAWALPINDI:
The Lahore High Court here on Wednesday set aside an application by Ali Musa Gilani challenging the legal status of two approvers in the ephedrine quota allocation case and reserved its verdict on the bail plea of Gilani and Textile Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin.
The LHC’s Rawalpindi bench dismissed the application filed by the son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani , praying to the court to discard statements made by former director general (DG) health Dr Rasheed Jumma and a former director of a pharmaceutical company, Rizwan Khan.
Challenging the legal status of the two accused, who later turned approvers in the case, Advocate Dr Khalid Ranjah said under procedural laws the approvers should have been arrested and sent to jail on judicial custody before they consented to turn into approvers.
The court while dismissing Gilani’s plea observed that the LHC had already allowed the two approvers to appear before the trial court and record their statements as witnesses.
Arguing for the bail pleas, the lawyers of Musa Gilani and Shahbuddin said ephedrine was not included in the list of narcotics and the case could not be investigated by the ANF and that the ANF had no other evidence other than the statements of the two approvers, which were given under duress.
The lawyers also argued that other pharmaceutical companies were granted larger allocations of ephedrine but no action had been taken against those companies, adding that it was a politically motivated case since the ANF obtained arrest warrants for Shahabuddin the day he was to submit nomination papers to become prime minister.
On the other hand, ANF prosecutors said there were numerous witnesses against Musa and Shahbuddin. The court reserved judgment in the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2012.
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