The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi’s life sentence in the ephedrine quota case and ordered his release, a private TV channel reported.
A two-judge bench headed by Justice Aalia Neelum heard Abbasi’s bail petition against his life sentence.
On June 22, 2018, a special anti-narcotics court had sentenced Abbasi to life in the ephedrine quota case.
In his petition, Abbasi had stated that the anti-narcotics court overlooked important legal points in its decision. “Seven other suspects were released. The case was formed against the petitioner on political basis,” the petition had maintained and pleaded to the LHC to suspend the sentence.
Approving Abbasi’s petition, the LHC suspended his life sentence and ordered his release.
Abbasi was arrested just four days before the general election in the country last year. A former MNA, Abbasi was to contest the 2018 general election from NA-60 Rawalpindi.
The ephedrine case surfaced in March 2011 when then federal minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin told the National Assembly that the government will investigate the alleged allocation of a quota for the production of 9,000kg of ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies – Berlex Lab International and Danas Pharmaceutical Limited.
According to the rules, a company cannot be allocated a production quota of more than 500kg of the drug, a limit fixed by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had eventually registered a case in June 2012 against nine suspects, including Abbasi.
