LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Friday adjourned an application of PML-N leader Raja Hanif Abbasi for an early hearing of his appeal against sentence in the ephedrine quota case and its transfer from Rawalpindi seat to the principal seat.

The chief justice asked the petitioner’s counsel to wait for a week as a new roster of the judges working at all regional benches and the principal seat had been prepared.

Justice Bhatti observed that the appeal would be transferred to Lahore if judges working at the Rawalpindi seat recused themselves from hearing the same.

A special court for control of narcotic substances (CNS) had handed down life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs1 million to Abbasi days before the last general elections on July 21, 2018, in the ephedrine quota case.

The ANF registered the case against Abbasi and others in 2012 under sections 9-C, 14 and 15 of the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Act for misuse of 500kg of ephedrine.

Abbasi was contesting the election against his main rival Awami Muslim League’s chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad from NA-60, Rawalpindi but he stood disqualified following the guilty verdict four days before the general election.

The trial judge had announced the conviction around midnight to meet a deadline set by a single judge of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench. The LHC in a directive of June 11, 2018, had ordered the trial court to announce its verdict by July 21.

The appeal filed by Abbasi said the conviction was politically motivated as only one out of eight suspects of the case was convicted and that was the appellant. It said the appellant never misused the ephedrine quota, but the trial court ignored basic legal questions before handing down the impinged sentence.

It argued that the ephedrine did not fall within the definition of scheduled drugs or controlled narcotics. However, it said the trial judge relied upon a definition of ephedrine explored online.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2022