RAWALPINDI, Sept 6: A division bench of Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench on Thursday granted interim bail to a lawmaker of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) in the ephedrine case against Rs200,000 surety.

The bench, comprising Justice Maqbool Ahmed Bajwa and Justice Ali Baqir Najafi, while hearing the pre-arrest bail petition of MNA Mohammad Hanif Abbasi also issued notice to the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) and adjourned the hearing till September 12.

Sardar Mohammad Ishaq, the counsel for Mr Abbasi, adopted before the court that his client was a well-known politician and the ANF had prepared a politically-motivated case against him at the behest of his rivals in order to damage his repute. He said that in 2010 Mr Abbasi had applied for ephedrine quota in accordance with the procedure given in the rules of the Ministry of Health. He said there was no specific demand raised by the MNA for providing any specific quota to him.

According to him, the then ministry of health allocated 500 kg ephedrine quota to Mr Abbasi which he procured on different occasions and in accordance with the manufacturing requirements of medicine.

He claimed that the ephedrine was used in the medicine which had been sold to the chemists of Rawalpindi and Karachi. The chemists also appeared before the ANF and recorded their statements and also provided the necessary proofs, he added.

The MNA also appeared before the ANF and submitted his written statement to the investigation team, the counsel said, adding Mr Abbasi also provided the ANF all the relevant documents, including laboratory reports that confirmed the ephedrine as an ingredient in the medicine and also verification report of the die used for the manufacturing of the medicine.