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Published 16 Aug, 2012 02:39am

Ephedrine case: court admits bail pleas for hearing

RAWALPINDI, Aug 15: Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS) court of Rawalpindi on Wednesday admitted the bail applications of former director general health Asad Hafeez and the chief executive officer of Cane pharmaceutical for regular hearing and asked the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) to submit complete record of the ephedrine case.

Hafeez, a successor of Dr Rashid Juma who has been declared as an approver in ephedrine case, sought the post-arrest bail on medical grounds. CNS Judge Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry directed the medical officer to submit a certificate regarding the health of former DG by August 17.

Hashim Khan Tareen, chief executive officer of Multan-based Cane Pharmaceutical, told the court that under section 5 of Drug Rules, ephedrine is controlled chemical and not narcotics.

He said his pharmaceutical company had obtained a permit for the import of ephedrine and provided the relevant details to the ANF.

He contended that only drug inspector could conduct investigation into the alleged misuse of ephedrine. The court after issuing notices to the ANF adjourned the hearing till August 17.

According to the ANF investigation, former DG health Hafeez sanctioned allocation and conversion of 2,500 kg ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies, Berlex and Danas.

ANF’s challan revealed that Hashim was a cousin of Rizwan Khan, the director of Danas pharmaceutical who also became approver in the ephedrine case.

The challan said Rizwan and Hashim prepared the fake manufacturing record of the controlled chemical ephedrine.

Meanwhile, Ameer Mohammad Khan, the Anti-Corruption (AC) Judge of Rawalpindi put off the hearing on an application ofcommodore (retired) Ilyas, the vice chief executive of Bahria Town.

Commodore Ilyas in his application requested the court for reviewing its order for attachment of the properties of Malik Riaz, his son Ali Riaz and seven other accused allegedly involved in 1,401 kanal land fraud case.

The court clubbed the application with the main land fraud case and would take up the matter on September 3.

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