LAHORE: Former law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, who faces trial in a drug recovery case, told a special court for control of narcotics substance on Saturday that the raiding team of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had found garments from the bag recovered from his vehicle.

He also alleged that the ANF pressurised and harassed several people facing charges of drug peddling in Faisalabad, the constituency of the former minister, to extract a statement against him. However, he claimed that they refused to give false statements against him.

Mr Khan appeared before the trial court along with his counsel Azam Nazir Tarar.

ATC court grants pre-arrest bail to ex-MPA Saif Khokhar

The counsel pointed out that the ANF summoned over 200 individuals for interrogation and also recorded statements of its employees. He also complained about non-provision of the copies of the statements of the prosecution witnesses despite a written application filed with the court.

Presiding Judge Shakir Hassan observed that the defence was supposed to get copies of the witnesses’ statements as per the law.

A prosecutor said all the statements of the witnesses were available on the record, however, material not part of the record could not be furnished.

The judge directed the prosecution to furnish the record of the summons issued to private persons for interrogation to the defence.

The judge also delayed the indictment of Mr Khan and other suspects due to unavailability of the special prosecutor of ANF and the regular defence counsel.

The hearing was adjourned till Jan 2.

The ANF had arrested Mr Khan on July 1, 2019, and claimed to have recovered 15-kg heroin from his vehicle.

BAIL: An anti-graft court on Saturday granted pre-arrest bail to PML-N ex-MPA Malik Saiful Malook Khokhar in a case registered by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).

Mr Khokhar along with his counsel Rafaqat Dogar appeared before Presiding Judge Raja Arshad.

The counsel argued that the ACE registered a fabricated FIR at the behest of the government only to sabotage the upcoming PDM rally in Lahore. He said the ACE had not provided the former MPA with a copy of the FIR so he could not approach the court.

The judge allowed bail to Mr Khokhar till Dec 10 and also directed the ACE to furnish him a copy of the FIR.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2020