ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: Only two days after getting the draft of a Swiss letter approved by a five-judge bench, the government won another relief from the Supreme Court on Friday.
This time the apex court confirmed the pre-arrest bails it had earlier granted to Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Textiles Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin. The two PPP leaders are allegedly involved in the ephedrine quota scandal.
“Both the petitions are converted into appeal and the bail already granted stands confirmed,” ruled Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk. The bails would remain in effect till a final verdict was announced, he said.
A three-judge bench which had taken up the pre-arrest bail petitions of Musa Gilani and Makhdoom Shahabuddin ignored a request by Shahid Abbasi, a prosecutor representing the Anti-Narcotics Forces (ANF), to investigate the accused in the case.
The Supreme Court also decided to dispose of a contempt of court case moved by Musa Gilani against the ANF.
Dr Khalid Ranjha, the counsel for Musa Gilani, said he would not press for the contempt case because by doing so he would be looking too small, especially after getting the relief he was seeking from the court.
Justice Tariq Pervez, a member of the bench, said the allegations suggested that Musa Gilani used his political standing by calling certain individuals for the grant of ephedrine quota.
But Dr Ranjha said his client had not made any objectionable phone calls because all public representatives made such calls to address issues of their constituents.
He said Musa Gilani had been arraigned in the case because of a legal battle between the ANF and the civil administration headed by his father Yousuf Raza Gilani – a case in which the previous administration had transferred ANF’s regional director Brig Faheem and investigating officer Abid Zulfikar. The two were investigating the ephedrine scandal.
The transfer, however, was cancelled by the Supreme Court with a direction to complete the inquiry against those involved in the scam.
Dr Ranjha contended that ephedrine did not come under the definition of a chemical substance under the Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA) 1997, but the ANF had booked his client under heinous provisions of the act by leaving the definition of law way too far.
The ANF prosecutor said Musa Gilani had used his political clout to influence the quota allocation and the pressure exerted by Tauqir Ahmed Khan, personal secretary to Musa Gilani, was on record.
Sardar Ishaq, representing Makhdoom Shahabuddin, said that statements of approvers – former director general of health Dr Rasheed Juma and Rizwan Ahmed Khan – should be disregarded since they had not recorded the statements in accordance with the procedure laid down in Section 337 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Mr Shahabuddin pleaded the ANF had declared him absconder on Sept 8. He asked how could he be involved in allocation, manufacture and distribution or sale of ephedrine when there was no proof of his involvement and whether he could be implicated for abetment after nine months without any cogent admissible and confidence-inspiring evidence.
Mr Shahabuddin said he had been implicated on the basis of statements of approvers recorded on July 16 – more than nine months after the registration of the case. He alleged that Dr Juma had allocated more than 6,500kg of ephedrine out of 9,000kg and converted the quota into local sale.
Talking to reporters after the hearing, Musa Gilani said he had trust in the Supreme Court and knew that he would get justice from it. He said it was easy to level allegations against someone but it was hard to prove them.