LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Monday allowed the transfer of PML-N leader Raja Hanif Abbasi’s appeal against his sentence in the ephedrine quota case from Rawalpindi seat to the principal (Lahore) seat of the court.

Mr Abbasi had filed an application for early hearing of appeal and its transfer to the principal seat.

During the hearing, a provincial law officer opposed the transfer application, saying appeals in narcotics cases were being heard at the Rawalpindi bench.

He said there was no need to transfer the proceedings to Lahore seat.

A counsel for the petitioner contended that the judges sitting at Rawalpindi bench recused themselves from the appeal on personal reasons. He asked the court to transfer the appeal from Rawalpindi to the principal seat in Lahore.

The chief justice allowed the transfer application and directed the registrar’s office to fix the hearing at the principal seat before an appropriate bench.

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

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

Mr Abbasi was contesting 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 Mr Abbasi said the conviction was politically motivated as only one out of the eight suspects in the case was convicted and that was the appellant.

It said the appellant never misused the ephedrine quota, but the trial court ignored the basic legal questions before handing down the impugned sentence.

It argued that the ephedrine did not fall within the definition of scheduled drug or controlled narcotics. However, it said the trial judge relied upon a definition of ephedrine explored on Google search engine.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2022