RAWALPINDI, Sept 25: A judicial magistrate for the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) on Tuesday dismissed the application seeking warrants of arrest for the employees of the pharmaceutical company owned by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Mohammad Hanif Abbasi, in connection with the ephedrine case.

The magistrate, however, allowed the force to take the employees of pharmaceutical company in their custody, in accordance with their own rules.

ANF prosecutor moved an application before Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam ANF judicial magistrate for obtaining the arrest warrants of senior employees of Grey’s pharmaceutical company owned by MNA Hanif Abbasi.

The ANF requested for the arrest warrants for manager production Ghazanfer Ali, manager marketing Rana Mohsin and quality control manager Nasir Khan.

They informed the court that the custody of the said employees is required in order to complete the investigation of misuse of 500kg ephedrine.

Ghulam Mustafa Kandwal the counsel of the employees opposed the ANF application.

The magistrate observed that the ANF under control of narcotics substances (CNS) act can take the suspects in their custody even without obtaining arrest warrants.

He said the ANF would invoke the relevant clause to take into custody the employees in order to complete the investigation accordingly.