Ephedrine case: SC confirms bail for Ali Musa, Shahabuddin

Apex court rejects ANF request for cancellation of pre-arrest bails.


Azam Khan October 13, 2012

ISLAMABAD:


The Supreme Court confirmed on Friday the bails of former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son Ali Musa Gilani and federal minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin in the ephedrine case.


A three-member bench, headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk, accepted pre-arrest bail petitions filed by Shahabuddin and Ali Musa, and rejected the Anti-Narcotics Force’s (ANF) request to investigate the two.

Justice Mulk observed that Ali Musa has not been accused of reallocating the ephedrine quota and asked ANF counsel Raja Shahid Abbasi if they had any evidence that the controlled chemical was used in the manufacture of narcotics.

Abbasi contended that controlled chemical was smuggled out of the country. He said that in 2010, the demand for ephedrine among all pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan stood at 5,310kg but in 2011, a single company was allotted a 6,500kg quota of the chemical.

The ANF prosecutor maintained that Tauqir Khan and Anjum Shah (among the accused in the case) were front-men on behalf of Ali Musa and Shahabuddin, respectively. He said that the statement of driver Ehsan Bari – who left Tauqir Khan at the Prime Minister House and proof of Ali Musa’s phone calls to Khushnud Lashari were on record.

Informing the court that further investigations against Ali Musa and Shahabuddin had yet to be conducted, the ANF unsuccessfully pleaded for the cancellation of their interim bails.

Shahabuddin reiterated his stance that the reason he was implicated in the case was to prevent him from becoming the prime minister of Pakistan and that he was not named in the case’s FIR and challans.

“My arrest warrant was issued the day I had submitted my nominations papers for the post of prime minister.”

Meanwhile, speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court, Ali Musa said he only trusted the apex court. He said that it was an easy task to level allegations against someone and that it was equally hard to prove them right.

“I approached the court because I knew that being the highest forum of justice, it will listen to my reasoning calmly – something which I could not do in front of the media,” he said, adding that he was hopeful that when the case is moved to the trial court, he would succeed.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2012.

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