RAWALPINDI, Aug 2: A lawmaker of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N on Thursday withdrew his petition filed against the alleged harassment by Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) in connection with the investigation in ephedrine case.

He withdrew his petition after the ANF told the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench that they had registered a fresh FIR against the lawmaker.

Sardar Mohammad Ishaq, counsel for MNA Hanif Abbasi told the Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench comprising LHC Justice Syed Najamul Hassan and Justice Shahzad Ahmed Khan that he was withdrawing the petition in view of the ANFstatement regarding the registration of fresh FIR.

Advocate Ishaq told Dawn that now he would challenge the fresh FIR registered against the lawmaker, adding that after the registration of the fresh case, legally, he could not argue the previous petition.

ANF special prosecutor barrister Wasim Ahmed Qureshi told the court that his client agency had investigated the record of 99 companies who dealt with the ephedrine and found some irregularities in the record of 28 companies and after a thorough probe cases were registered against seven of them including Grey’s pharma, owned by MNA Abbasi.

The previous FIR was registered against two pharmaceutical companies, Berlex and Danas. He dispelled the impression that ANF was not working under the instruction of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a political rival of MNA Abbasi, and the FIR was registered against the PML-N lawmakers as well as other pharmaceutical companies in accordance with the law.

MNA Abbasi in his petition said that there was no evidence against him or his company adding that ANF authorities had been pressuring his employees to record their statements against him.