Islamabad(July 17, 2018): The Apex Court of Pakistan Tuesday dismissed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi’s petition against a high court order directing to conclude the ephedrine case against him by July 21.
According to the details, a two-member bench of the Apex Court heard the case, in which Abbasi’s counsel Kamran Murtaza argued that the ephedrine case was set to be heard by the trial court on August 2.
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However, petitioner Shahid Orakzai pleaded the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench to order a swift trial from July 16 onwards and conclude the case on July 21, he added further.
When Murtaza argued that the high court cannot change the trial’s date, Justice Ijazul Ahsan remarked that in fact, under Article 203 of the Constitution, the high court has the authority to do so.
The bench then dismissed Abbasi’s petition.
Earlier on July 11, the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench ordered that the narcotics smuggling trial against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Hanif Abbasi be concluded on July 21.
At an earlier hearing on April 20, Abbasi appeared before Judge Muhammad Akram Khan and requested him to de-freeze his accounts.
However, the ANF strongly opposed the request and told the court that if Abbasi is acquitted in the ephedrine case, all his accounts will be de-frozen automatically, but it was not possible to de-freeze them at this stage.
Abbasi, a former MNA from Rawalpindi, is expected to have a tough electoral contest on July 25 with Sheikh Rasheed — who is allied with PML-N’s chief opponent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Ephedrine Case:
The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had registered a case against Abbasi and his accomplices in June 2012 under various sections of the CNS Act.
ANF officials claim the substance was sold by Abbasi to narcotics smugglers who used it to make ‘party drugs’.
The trial has been ongoing in a Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court in Rawalpindi.
Abbasi and the other accused, including his brother, were indicted in 2014 by the CNS Court.
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