LAHORE: A special court for Control of Narcotics Substance on Saturday issued a notice to the Anti-Narcotics Force on bail petition of PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah Khan in a narcotics case.

Earlier, Mr Khan was brought to the court from jail amid strict security arrangements on expiry of his previous judicial remand.

At the outset of the hearing, a prosecutor presented footage of a CCTV camera showing vehicle of Mr Khan entering and exiting the motorway.

Defence counsel Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar pointed out that the video showed the vehicle only and not the passengers. He urged the court to summon more videos from the prosecution, if it possessed, including that of the arrest operation.

However, the prosecutor stated there was no other video except the one presented before the court.

At this, the defence counsel argued the court should summon video record of the cameras of Safe City Authority as the footage presented by the prosecution was few seconds long and did not show the journey of Mr Khan from the point of arrest to the ANF office.

The court directed the ANF to also grab footage of the Safe City Authority’s cameras.

The court also issued notice to Mr Khan for Sept 7 on an application of the prosecution seeking permission to confiscate properties of the suspect.

The judicial remand of the former law minister was extended till Aug 28 when arguments will also be heard on his bail petition.

The petition challenged the merits of the case terming it a politically motivated and based on mala fide intention. It said the recovery of narcotics attributed to the petitioner was just an eyewash. It said there was no need to keep the petitioner behind bars.

Talking to the media, Mr Khan said vindictive and baseless actions of the government made him stand by his party and leader Nawaz Sharif with more force.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2019