KARACHI, July 21: The drugs court issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of an officer of the Federal Investigation Agency and an official of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee for their failure to appear in court in cases pertaining to the sale of substandard drugs.

Despite repeated notices, FIA’s Assistant Director Anwar-ul-Haq Qureshi and CPLC official Idrees Qureshi had failed to appear in court to record their statements.

The three-member drugs court headed by Sathi M. Ishaq issued non-bailable warrants against the FIA official for Aug 15 through the FIA director-general and against the CPLC officer for Aug 1.

According to the prosecution, acting on a tip-off an FIA team with a drug inspector raided a shop on M. A. Jinnah Road in March 2009 and seized substandard and spurious drugs and arrested Saleem Ahmed.

Later, more substandard drugs were found in two warehouses on a lead given by the detained accused and three cases were registered against him under the Drugs Act on a complaint of Mr Qureshi.

In another case, the CPLC with police and drugs authorities carried out a raid in Defence Housing Authority and seized a drug manufacturing machine and substandard drugs in July last year. Aftab Jaffery and Yahya Jaffery were booked under the Drugs Act.