RAWALPINDI, June 26: Ali Musa Gilani, the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, will be arrested for his alleged involvement in the ephedrine quota case, a spokesman for the Anti-Narcotics Force told reporters at a ceremony on Tuesday. “Efforts are being made by the ANF to arrest the accused in the ephedrine case because we are proceeding according to the law,” said Lt Col Mohammad Ishtiaq Ahmad. “Operational set-up of the ANF and police stations are spread all over the country.”

However, he parried a question about attempts by the ANF to arrest other high-profile accused in the case.

Despite repeated attempts by reporters, the spokesman did not open his mouth about the arrest warrants for Makhdoom Shahabuddin, the former health minister and PPP candidate for the prime ministerial slot. Reporters were not allowed to meet ANF director-general Maj Gen Malik Zafar Iqbal who apparently avoids the media.

Makhdoom Shahabuddin withdrew his nomination papers for the prime minister’s slot after the anti-narcotics court came out with warrants for his arrest on the day he filed his nomination papers.

It led him to seek pre-arrest bail from the Peshawar High Court, a day after warrants were issued by the ANF court in ephedrine case.

Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan granted him bail and told him to appear before the court within seven days.

Special Anti-Narcotics court judge Shafqatullah Khan had issued arrest warrants for Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Ali Musa Gilani.

He said the ANF had traced some bigwigs involved in drug trafficking and after selling their immovable assets, added a large sum of money to the national exchequer.

The spokesman said the supply of ephedrine to pharmaceutical companies was going on in accordance with the quota allocation policy.

He said former director-general (health) Dr Rasheed Jumma was not in the custody of ANF.

Dr Jumma had said some people had once pressured him to give quota for importing ephedrine and Ali Musa, too, had called him in this regard.

The director-general said the ANF and other law enforcement agencies had seized 23,378.550 kgs of opium, 4,254,548 kgs of morphine, 7,564,821 kgs of heroin and 185,000,223 kgs of hashish over the past one year.

A total of 30 tons of drugs, including heroin, charas, opium and morphine, were burnt during the burning ceremony.