Ephedrine case: Court indicts Hanif Abbasi, others

Abbasi accused of misappropriating 500kg of controlled narcotics, selling them to drug smugglers

RAWALPINDI: The Control of Narcotics Substances Court (CNSC) on Wednesday indicted former MNA of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Hanif Abbasi and eight other accused in the ephedrine quota case. The other accused include Basit Abbasi, Ahmad Bilal, Rana Mohsin Khursheed, Ghazanfar Ali, Nasir Khan, Siraj Ahmad, Nazakat Khan and one unidentified person. CNSC Judge Akhtar Bahadur read out the formal charge-sheet against the accused, asking them to prove their innocence or plead guilty. The accused including Abbasi pleaded not guilty, vowing to contest the case. Abbasi was accused of misappropriating 500kg of controlled narcotics and selling them to drug smugglers. He said the quota of the medical substance allotted to him was only used for medicines. The court later adjourned the case till November 12 and called prosecution witnesses in the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2014.