Ephedrine case: Ali Musa Gilani approaches SC for pre-arrest bail

Lawyer says Ali Musa's arrest is being sought for political reasons.

ISLAMABAD: Following in the footsteps of Federal Minister Makhdoom Shahbuddin, Ali Musa Gilani moved the Supreme Court on Thursday to seek interim relief against a Lahore High Court (LHC) order in the Ephedrine quota case.

Ali Musa invoked the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court against the LHC verdict which denied him a pre-arrest bail in the Ephedrine case on September 3. Ali Musa, son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, is accused of pressuring officials of the Health Ministry in 2010 to allocate a quota of controlled chemical ephedrine to two different pharmaceutical companies.

Recently, the Supreme Court has granted pre-arrest bail in the same case to Federal Minister for Textile Industry Makhdoom Shahabuddin till September 25.

Filing for a pre-arrest bail under Article 185(3) of the Constitution, Ali Musa’s counsel Khalid Ranjaha submitted that neither his client was named in the FIR nor in any of the challans submitted by the prosecution before the court.

“It is needless to add that even though there is no evidence of incriminating nature against my client, warrants have been obtained out of sheer malice, ill will and by keeping the court deliberately in the dark,” he argued.

Ranjaha further said that the FIR was being used as a rouse to arrest his client and thereby to defame him in the eyes of his electorate and demolish the family image. He contended that although there was no evidence to connect the petitioner with the impugned FIR, the investigating agency was out to nab the petitioner. Despite there being no evidence, the petitioner’s warrants of arrest were obtained on June 21, 2012, he added.

Requesting the court for interim relief, Ranjaha said that there was no evidence against his client in connection to the ephedrine quota allocation but his arrest has been sought for political reasons. “Under the circumstances, it is prayed that special leave to appeal may very graciously be granted against order of the LHC of September 3”, Ranjaha submitted.