SC admits Shahabuddin's plea seeking pre-arrest bail

SC admits plea after LHC's Rawalpindi Bench dismissed it.

ISLAMABAD: Admitting Federal Minister for Textile Industries Makhdoom Shahabuddin’s plea seeking a pre-arrest bail in the Ephedrine quota scam, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing till September 25, Express News reported Wednesday.

The court issued notices to the Anti-Narcotics Force in this regard.

The federal minister on Monday moved the Supreme Court for relief against the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench order, which dismissed his pre-arrest bail petition.

Heading a three-member bench, Justice Nasirul Mulk heard the petition.

Shahabuddin’s lawyer Wakeel Sardar Ishaq told the court that the Ephedrine quota was not allotted by Shahabuddin, but former director-general health Rasheed Jumma, while a case against Shahabuddin was filed after eight months.

The court ordered Shahabuddin to submit two surety bonds of Rs500,000 each.

On September 3, the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC dismissed the pre-arrest bail petition, declaring that the petitioner was not entitled to such compensation and therefore the court would not be inclined to grant him relief.

Asserting his innocence in the scandal, Shahabuddin argued that neither his name was mentioned in the FIR nor in first challans.

Shahabuddin is accused of pressuring officials of the health ministry in 2010 to allocate huge quotas of controlled chemical ephedrine to two different pharmaceutical companies.