ISLAMABAD, June 7: Regional Director of the Anti-Narcotics Force Brig Fahim Ahmed Khan assured the Supreme Court on Thursday that an inquiry into the ephedrine case would surely be completed and challans would be submitted before the relevant court by the end of the month.

The assurance came in response to an observation by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that the entire world was keenly monitoring the case.

A three-judge bench had taken up a petition moved by the ANF against the import of a proscribed chemical — a scandal also involving the prime minister’s younger son Ali Musa Gilani.

Brig Fahim conceded before the court that although the ANF was probing the matter intensely, only circumstantial evidence was available against Ali Musa Gilani.

He said the ANF had widened its inquiry against former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin who had ordered the local conversion of ephedrine after Berlex Lab International and Danas Pharma (Pvt) Ltd failed to export asthma drugs to Afghanistan.