Hanif Abbasi shifted from Adiala jail to Attock prison after photo leak controversy
PML-N leader Mohammad Hanif Abbasi was on Saturday morning shifted from Adiala prison in Rawalpindi to Attock jail, sources told DawnNewsTV.
Abbasi, who is serving a life sentence after his conviction in the ephedrine quota case, was shifted to the prison in Attock in the early hours of Saturday on the recommendation of a two-member inquiry committee, a source in Adiala jail said.
The committee was formed to investigate how photographs were taken of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif and others in the office of the Central Jail Adiala superintendent prior to Sharif’s release on Wednesday on orders of the Islamabad High Court. Abbasi was one of the leaders seen in the photo.
Formed by Inspector General of Prisons Punjab Shahid Saleem Baig, the committee, which consists of Deputy Inspector General of Prisons Multan Region Malik Shaukat and Additional Inspector General Judicial Malik Safdar, was tasked with investigating who managed to bring a camera or phone into the office of jail superintendent Saeedullah Gondal. Mobile phones and cameras are not permitted within the prison facility.
The committee will interview Gondal and other jail staffers, as well as view CCTV footage of the visitors.
Members of the committee also visited Adiala jail, and recommended that Abbasi be transferred to Attock prison, sources told DawnNewsTV.
Two photographs released on social media showed Nawaz Sharif with Shahbaz, former adviser to the prime minister on aviation Sardar Mehtab Khan, Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Raheel Munir.
Another photograph showed Abbasi sitting beside Sharif in the jail superintendent’s office. The deputy inspector general of prisons Rawalpindi region could be seen sitting in the jail superintendent’s chair and speaking to both politicians.
Search operation
Following the shifting of the PML-N leader, a search operation was started at Adiala jail during which all barracks and cells of the prison were scoured.
Nearly 200 additional personnel were called from the prisons in Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal for the search operation at Adiala, sources revealed.
ANF had registered a case against Abbasi and his accomplices in June 2012 under sections 9-C, 14 and 15 of the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Act for misuse of 500kg of ephedrine.
The CNS Court of Rawalpindi sentenced Abbasi to lifetime in prison in the case just before the July 25 general elections.
