News Desk |
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday has suspended Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi’s life imprisonment sentence in ephedrine quota case and ordered his release. Abbasi will be released on bail.
A two-judge bench headed by Justice Alia Neelum heard Abbasi’s bail petition. On June 22, 2018, a special Anti-Narcotics Court (ANC) had sentenced Abbasi to life in the ephedrine quota case. In his petition, Abbasi had stated that the ANC had overlooked legal points in its decision.
The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had registered a case against Abbasi and others in June 2012 for illegally obtaining 500kg of ephedrine for his company Gray Pharmaceuticals.
Last year in July, former MNA, Abbasi was arrested from the court premises soon after the CNS Court of Rawalpindi Judge Sardar Akram awarded him life imprisonment. Seven other accused in the same case were acquitted owing to lack of evidence.
The trial had been ongoing in a Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court in Rawalpindi. The court had indicted Abbasi and the other accused, including his brother, in 2014.
The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had registered a case against Abbasi and others in June 2012 for illegally obtaining 500kg of ephedrine for his company Gray Pharmaceuticals.
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ANF officials claimed the substance was sold by Abbasi to narcotics smugglers, who used it to make party drugs.
The article had input by Sana Mushtaq.