RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: An Anti-Narcotics Court in Rawalpindi on Saturday awarded life-imprisonment to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi in Ephedrine Quota Case.
The judgement was announced by the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court Judge Mohammad Akram Khan.
Hanif Abbasi’s eight accomplices including his brother Basit Abbasi were acquitted by the Court on the basis of benefit of doubt.
The PML-N leader can file an appear against his conviction within 30 days.
Meanwhile, the PML-N workers turned furious against the conviction of Hanif Abbasi, and registered a strong protest inside the Court premises. The PML-N workers also attacked the Court with stones and broke windows of the building.
Earlier in the day, Hanif Abbasi’s lawyer Tanvir Iqbal and the Counsel for Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) concluded their arguments. Following the verdict, ANF personnel took the PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi into custody from the Court room.
The verdict was expected to be announced much earlier; however, it took almost 11 hours for unknown reasons till the judgement arrived.
It is worth mentioning here that Hanif Abbasi was the PML-N’s Candidate in the upcoming general elections 2018 from NA-60 Rawalpindi-IV against the Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.
The ANF had registered the Ephedrine Quota Case against Hanif Abbasi and his accomplices in June 2012 under section 9-C, 14 and 15 of the CNS Act. He was indicted in the Case by the CNS Court on October 29, 2014.
Hanif Abbasi was accused of misusing 500 kilograms controlled chemical ephedrine which he obtained for his Pharmaceutical Company ‘Gray Pharmaceutical’ in 2010. But instead of using it in medicine, he allegedly sold it to narcotics smugglers who used it to make ‘party drugs’.
Earlier on July 11, 2018, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Ibadur Rahman Lodhi directed the Anti-Narcotics Court to conclude the trial against Hanif Abbasi in the Ephedrine Case by July 21.
Later, the Supreme Court also dismissed Hanif Abbasi’s petition against the LHC’s order directing to conclude the Ephedrine Case against him by the set date.
