Ephedrine case: Abbasi’s indictment deferred again

Indictment likely at next hearing On August 28.

RAWALPINDI: A Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court on Monday deferred the indictment of former MNA Hanif Abbasi, his brother and five others till August 28 in the ephedrine quota case.

Abbasi’s counsel on Monday submitted a fresh application under section 256k requesting the court to acquit his client. The counsel claimed that his client is innocent and that the case is fabricated and politically-motivated.

Meanwhile, Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) prosecutor Shahid Abbasi also submitted an application to the court and requested to frame charges against the accused. He informed the court that ANF had submitted challan (charge sheet) against the accsued, therefore, there is no reason to delay their indictment. The court adjourned the matter till August 28. Indictment is likely at the next hearing.

ANF had submitted the challan to the CNS court and declared Abbasi, his brother and five employees of Grey Pharmaceuticals as accused. Earlier, the indictment was delayed due to lawyers strike.

Abbasi is accused of misappropriating 500kg of the controlled chemical ephedrine, obtained in 2010, and allegedly selling it to narcotics smugglers. The charge sheet also includes the statements of two officials of Arafaat Traders, a Karachi-based medicine distribution company to whom Abbasi claimed to have supplied 11,000 ephedrine-containing tablets.

ANF had registered the case against the co-accused in June 2012. However, in November 2012, Abbasi obtained bail from the LHC Rawalpindi Bench.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2014.