LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday gave another opportunity to a federal government lawyer to submit a reply to an appeal moved by the PML-N’s former MNA Hanif Abbasi, seeking suspension of his life term and fine handed down to him in ephedrine quota case.

The bench headed by Justice Aalia Neelum was hearing the appeal when the law officer sought more time for the submission of the reply. The bench accepted the request and adjourned the hearing till March 28 with a warning to the law officer that he should not come up again with any excuse.

A special anti-narcotics court had in July 2018 handed down life sentence and a fine of Rs1 million to Mr Abbasi in the eight-year-old ephedrine quota case.

Mr Abbasi primarily termed his conviction politically motivated, saying only one out of the eight suspects in the case was convicted and that was him.

He denied the allegation of misusing the ephedrine quota and said the trial court ignored basic legal questions before handing down the impinged sentence.

The counsel for Mr Abbasi also complained about bad health condition of his client in the jail.

FBR NOTICE: Former provincial caretaker minister Zia Haider Rizvi has challenged a notice issued to him by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) under Income Support Levy Tax Act 2013.

In a petition filed before the LHC, Mr Rizvi pleads that he is a registered tax payer, also pays zakat and that he never defaulted on his taxes.

The former minister argues that the social welfare is a provincial subject and the FBR has no jurisdiction to impose the levy in the name of social protection.

He says the notice issued by the board for the recovery of the income support levy is unlawful and without any jurisdiction. He asked the court to set aside the impugned notice of the FBR for being illegal.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2019