Ephedrine case: Jurisdiction of CNS court challenged in LHC

None of defendants — Ali Musa Gillani, Makhdom Shahbuddin, Iftikhar Babar, Abdul Khaliq — appear in court.

RAWALPINDI:

The court for Control of Narcotic Substances (CNS) on Monday could not indict suspects in the ephedrine case after its jurisdiction was challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC) .

Lawyers for the defendants informed CNS Judge Akhtar Bahadur on Monday that they have challenged the jurisdiction of the court and the suspects could not be indicted until the LHC issued a verdict on the jurisdiction challenge.

The LHC Rawalpindi bench will take up the petition of the defendants on Tuesday. None of the defendants — Ali Musa Gillani, former federal minister Makhdom Shahbuddin, Iftikhar Babar and Abdul Khaliq — appeared in court,but medical certificates for Khaliq and Babar were produced.

In the application, defence lawyers said that under an older LHC order, no court in the province could hear cases that belong to Islamabad.

“The court cannot hear the ephedrine case as it is related to Islamabad,” said Abdur Rasheed Sheikh, the lawyer of Ansar Farooq.

“The court cannot indict my clients until the LHC adjudicates the application,” he said.

“If the CNS continues to hear the case, it will be violation of the LHC order,” Sheikh said adding that all cases related to Islamabad have been transferred to Islamabad courts. The court adjourned till the 24th.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2014.