Islamabad (September 28, 2017): The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) submitted the departmental report of the proceedings undertaken it in the Special Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court as ordered by the court on the 13th of this month. The court resumed the hearing of in ephedrine quota case.
The son of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Ali Musa Gilani who is one of the accused also filed an application in the court seeking restoration of his banks account that the court had ordered frozen on September 13.
Musa Gilani and one of the other accused former federal minister Makhdoom Shahbuddin, whose bank accounts were also ordered frozen by the court on September 13, appeared before the Judge of the CNS Court Irum Niazi today. The counsels of the both Gilani and Sahbuddin closed their arguments today.
Shahbuddin’s counsel Naeem Bukhari claimed that the action against his client is driven by vengeance because the petioner did not mention his client’s name in the first three challans and had added his name in the fourth challan on the basis of suspicion. Meanwhile, the statements that were recorded before the court also kept changing, he added.
The court later adjourned the hearing till October 18.
On the last hearing on September 13, the court issued had ordered the freezing the accounts on the request of the ANF in the ephedrine quota case. Commenting on the freezing of his accounts Ali Musa Gilani had said that there is mere balance of Rs 100,000 in his account.
Gilani had also filed an application seeking acquittal in the said case on the same day while Shahabuddin had acquired the services of Naeem Bukhari as a lawyer and he has approached Islamabad High Court seeking quashing of proceedings against him by the ANF.
Directing the ANF to submit the inter-department report about the case on next hearing the court had adjourned the hearing of the case till September 28 (today).
It may be mentioned here that in late April this year the CNS had charged nine accused, including Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Ali Musa Gilani in a case related to the misuse of controlled chemical ephedrine.
The CNS judge Irum Niazi indicted the nine suspects in the case.
Those who were charged included incumbent Director General Health Asad Hafeez, the directors of two pharmaceutical companies, including Ansar Farooq Chaudhry, retired Col Tahirul Wadood Lahoti, Iftikhar Babar and employees of the devolved ministry of health.
After they were indicted all the nine suspects pleaded not guilty and decided to stand trial. The defense counsel, Abdul Rashid Sheikh, had even challenged the court’s jurisdiction saying the case pertained to the drug court. The court had directed the prosecution to produce witnesses and evidence from the next hearing on May 12.
The ephedrine case had surfaced in March 2011 when the then federal minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin told the National Assembly that the government would investigate the alleged allocation of 9,000 kilogrames of ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies – Berlex and Danas. According to the rules, a company cannot be allocated more than 500kg of the drug.
The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) registered the ephedrine case against the accused after Danas Pharmaceutical Limited and Berlex Lab International were accused of obtaining export quota for the drug in collusion with the health ministry officials, which exceeded the limits fixed by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).
In 2010, Ali Musa Gilani was accused of influencing the health ministry officials for allocating a quota of the controlled chemical, reportedly worth Rs70 billion, to two Multan-based pharmaceutical companies.
Besides being used in the production of medicine, ephedrine is also used to manufacture party drugs. The then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry began hearing the case in early 2012 and said Ali Musa Gilani was also a suspect in the case.
In his statement as the state approver, former director general health Dr Rasheed Jumma had accused both Ali Gilani and Shahabuddin of pressuring him to convert the export quota so that 9,000 kgs of ephedrine could be used for local consumption in 2010.
The two pharmaceutical companies were allocated huge quantities of ephedrine in excess of their quotas and both firms did not keep a record of the consumption of the controlled chemical.
Another accused, Rizwan Khan, former director of Danas Pharmaceuticals, in his statement as the approver claimed the drug was smuggled to Iran through Balochistan which fetched Rs7 billion for the people involved.
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