RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi division bench on Monday extended the interim bail of Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and former federal health minister and Makhdoom Shahabuddin to Aug 27, DawnNews reported.

The bail was extended by the LHC division bench comprising Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi and Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed hearing the ephedrine quota case.

The case involves the illegal allocation of ephedrine quota worth Rs7 billion to two pharmaceutical companies – Berlex Lab International and Danas Pharmaceutical.

Dr Khalid Ranjha, the counsel for Musa Gilani, appeared before the bench on his client's behalf, whereas Makhdoom Shahab's counsel, Shah Khawar, failed to appear during the hearing on account of personal commitments.

The Anti-Narcotics Force's prosecutor objected to the absence of Makhdoom Shahab's counsel, adding that, the defendants were resorting to delaying tactics in the case.

Upon which, the bench extended the interim bail for Musa Gilani and Federal Minister for Textile Industries Makhdoom Shahab to Aug 27 and said that the matter would be argued during the upcoming hearing.

During the previous hearing, Makhdoom Shahab’s lawyers had leveled serious allegations against the Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS) judge before the bench.

Khawar and Abdul Rashid Sheikh had expressed lack of confidence in the CNS judge Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry when the court had advised them to appear before the CNS court for obtaining the bail. They had said that they could not trust the CNS judge as the army officers of ANF from the ranks of brigadier to colonel were frequent visitors to his retiring room.

Sheikh had claimed that the ANF officers even gave dictation to the court.

Khawar had also criticised the ANF for making two accused, Dr Rashid Juma, former director general health and Rizwan Khan the director of Danas pharmaceutical, approvers in the case.