Last year, a court had issued arrest warrants for Makhdoom Shahabuddin after he submitted his nomination papers for the premiership following former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani’s disqualification.—File Photo

RAWALPINDI: In dramatic developments in the Ephedrine quota case, an anti-narcotics court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday ordered authorities to freeze assets of four accused, including former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son Ali Musa Gilani, and his wife Fauzia Gilani.

A judge of the special Anti-Narcotics Court, Arshad Mehmood Tabbasum issued orders to freeze assets of the four suspects – which also include Minister for Textile Industries and former Prime Minister candidate, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, and former principal secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari – for their alleged involvement in the Ephedrine quota case.

The judge also summoned the accused on Feb 12 asking them to inform the court about their sources of income.

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had filed a petition with the court seeking orders to seize assets of the accused. The ANF had pleaded that there is a possibility that money made from the Ephedrine quota was used in making assets.

The Lahore High Court building.—File Photo

LAHORE: Approving bail requests of all three suspects, the Lahore High Court on Tuesday ordered the release of former director general of health, Asad Hafeez, chief executive officer Danas Pharmaceutical Ansar Farooq, and the owner of Berlex Labs, Iftikhar Ahmed Khan in connection to the Ephedrine quote case.

A divisional bench of the LHC, comprising Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Younis and Justice Ali Baqir Najafi, ordered the release of the three suspects on submission of Rs 10,000 bail each.

Authorities were investigating the three suspects for their alleged involvement in the alleged misuse of controlled substance ephedrine, a case which also embroiled former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son Ali MUsa Gilani and former Textile Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin.

According to a challan submitted by the Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar of the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF), which has been investigating the case, former director general of health Dr Asad Hafeez allegedly misused his authority in the allocation and local sale conversion of 2,500kg ephedrine to the two pharmaceutical companies – Berlex Lab International, of which Ansar Farooq was CEO, and Danas Pharmaceutical, which is owned by the third suspect Iftikhar Ahmed Khan.

PML-N MNA Hanif Abbasi is one of the accused in Ephedrine case.—File photo

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday confirmed the bails of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Hanif Abbasi, former Drug Controller, Sheikh Ansar and owner of the Lahore Pharmaceutical Company, Nadeem Zafar in the Ephedrine quota case.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Sagheer Ahmed Qadri and Justice Ali Baqir Najafi confirmed the bails of the accused against surety bonds of Rs 500,000 and two guarantors each.

Prosecutor General of the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF), Raja Shahid contended that the record submitted by Hanif Abbasi about usage of the allotted quota was “bogus.”

He said there were indications that the quota was smuggled to a neighbuoring country instead of using it in manufacturing medicines locally.

Counsel for the PML-N Parliamentarian, Sardar Ishaq Khan pleaded there was complete record of the medicines manufactured with the Ephedrine chemical and its distribution.

On July 29, the ANF had registered a case against Hanif Abbasi for his alleged involvement in misusing 500 kg ephedrine, which was to be used in manufacturing medicines locally.

File photo shows Textiles Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin speaking to media representatives.—Online/File Photo

LAHORE: Issuing notices to the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Thursday, the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench admitted a plea against freezing of Textiles Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin’s assets by the force for hearing, DawnNews reported.

Hearing the ephedrine quota case, a divisional bench of the LHC, comprising Justice Sagheer Ahmed and Justice Ali Baqir Najafi, directed the ANF to respond to the notice by Oct 11.

The court also accepted the interim bail application of Col (retd) Tahir Wadood Lahoti, former director of Danas Pharma, and issued further notices to the ANF in this regard for Oct 12.

The ANF is currently investigating pharmaceutical companies for their alleged involvement in the quota misallocation of controlled drug ephedrine.

The high profile case involves Ali Musa Gilani, who is the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Textiles Minister Makhdoom Shahbuddin, who was the federal health minister at the time of the alleged misallocation, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Hanif Abbasi and other notables.

PML-N MNA Hanif Abbasi. — File photo

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench on Wednesday extended the interim bails of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz’s (PML-N) MNA Hanif Abbasi, former director general health Asad Hafeez and the owner of a pharmaceutical company until Oct 17, DawnNews reported.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Sagheer Ahmed and Justice Ali Baqir Najafi was hearing the bail petition of the accused, who is allegedly involved in misusing the controlled chemical – ephedrine.

Counsel for the petitioner, Sardar Ishaq Khan pleaded that the entire record about usage of the allotted quota had been submitted before the trial court of Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).

He said that the case was being heard in the Supreme Court therefore the High Court should wait for the verdict of the apex court.

ANF Director (Legal) Akhtar Abbas contended that the quota record provided by the accused was not reliable and sought the physical remand of Hanif Abbasi to make headway in the case.

He told the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench that ANF was not responsible for the allotment of the ephedrine quota but it was responsible for conducting investigations if the quota was being used illicitly.

Abbas claimed that the records that Hanif Abbasi had submitted were forged. Justice Sagheer Ahmed showed his displeasure over the ANF officer’s claim and directed him to produce supporting evidence.

Hanif Abbasi had submitted some receipts and details of 170kg ephedrine used in the medicines, which were available in different markets, but there was no mention of the remaining 330kg chemical.

The ANF also received a laboratory report based on the samples of medicines collected from markets, which revealed that the medicines were recently manufactured and supplied in markets especially, after the misusing of ephedrine quota appeared.

The ANF also found that the drugs were supplied to unauthorized dealers in complete violation of the rules and regulations.

Rejecting the allegation of smuggling the quota to a neighbouring country, Hanif Abbasi said he used the quota in making medicines.

On July 29, the ANF had registered a case against Hanif Abbasi for his alleged involvement in misusing 500 kg ephedrine, which was to be used in manufacturing medicines locally.

– File Photo

ISLAMABAD: This winter, the country would have to brace itself for shortages in cold and cough medications as the delay in allocation of ephedrine has hit the manufacturing side.

The federal government on Wednesday told Dawn that the lingering high-profile ephedrine scam had affected the timely quota allocation of the drug to local and multinational companies.

The ephedrine scam is one of the biggest political scandals in recent times and involves a son of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and then federal health minister Makhdoom Shahbuddin.

“The government has finally released the much-needed ephedrine quota to national and multinational companies, so they can manufacture the necessary medications to cure winter illnesses,” a senior ranking official who was part of the meeting on the issue told Dawn.

According to the official, the ephedrine quota was released after scrutiny by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).

“Earlier, the Ministry of Regulations and Services would look after quotas, but now the ANF is issuing the quota,” said Federal Minister Firdaus Ashiq Awan.

The minister observed: “The companies were using the ephedrine quota before as well but with the delay in allocations, the entire chain of production has been affected. Import of material will take at least two to three months, and the shortage of flu and cough medications is a concern for us.”

Minister Awan was of the view that ideally the ephedrine quota should have been issued in January this year to give companies time to meet the production of deadlines.

An industry expert said that ephedrine is a controlled chemical manufactured with the approval of the government, and is used in popularly prescribed brands such as Coughcole, Triaminic, Panadol, Sincos, Arenic and Telfast during winter.

When enquired about the quantity of ephedrine released by the government, the expert replied: “I have no clue about the quantity released to the companies.”

Meanwhile, when Dawn contacted ANF spokesman Col Akhtar Abbas, he said: “The quota has been issued as per the approval of a committee headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Narcotics Control.”

The members of the committee working for allocation of ephedrine quota are none other than representative of director-general of the ANF, joint secretary of the Ministry of Narcotics Control, joint secretary of Regulations and Services Division, and the chief executive officer of the Drug Regulatory Agency of Pakistan (DRAP).

“This time the quota has been allocated on merit after complete scrutiny by the ANF. Previously, the director general health of the defunct health ministry would allocate the quota without any monitoring which led to ephedrine scam,” he maintained.

The spokesman claimed that ANF’s job is to only allocate the quota since the head of the DRAP is the technical advisor to the committee.

“Our job is to scrutinise quota allocation and have complete observations as to how much and who is using it. The DRAP’s job is to give us a list of companies to whom we issued ephedrine on merit,” said Col Abbas.

Makhdoom Shahab-ud-Din talks to media persons after submitting his nomination papers for the election of Prime Minister outside Parliament House in this file photo.  — File Photo by Online

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Textile Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin in response to his petition seeking pre-arrest bail, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk and including Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim, heard the petition submitted by the minister and granted him interim bail until Sept 25. The minister was also ordered to submit two personal bonds amounting to Rs500,000 each.

The court also issued notices to all those party to the case.

During the hearing, Justice Parvez inquired from the counsel of Makhdoom Shahab, Advocate Sardar Ishaq, as to how his client became a petitioner in the ephedrine quota case.

Sardar Ishaq informed the court that the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had filed the ephedrine case in Oct 2010 whereas Makhdoom Shahab was made part of the case six months after.

Justice Muslim asked Ishaq as to who was responsible for allotting the ephedrine quota upon which Ishaq replied that former director general of health Dr Rasheed Juma had allotted those.

In his remarks, Justice Parvez said the proceedings over the ephedrine case had been initiated during the call to attention notice moved in the parliament.

Makhdoom Shahabuddin had moved the SC seeking pre-arrest bail after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail petition and declared him as an absconder along with MNA Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Former Federal Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin talks to media persons after recording his statement regarding ephedrine case at Anti-Narcotics Force Headquarters. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Makhdoom Shahabuddin has submitted a request to be awarded a pre-arrest bail in the ephedrine quota case here on Monday, DawnNews reported.

The request was submitted on Shahabuddin’s behalf by Sardar Ishaq advocate.

Shahabuddin has stated in his request that he is being purposely targeted for political revenge in the ephedrine case.

Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. — File Photo by Online

RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Narcotics Force declared on Saturday federal Textiles Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin, former prime minister’s son Ali Musa Gilani and former principal secretary to the prime minister Khushnood Akhtar Lashari absconders in its fourth challan submitted to the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court in connection with the ephedrine case.

According to the challan submitted by ANF Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar, former director general of health Dr Asad Hafeez misused his authority in allocation and local sale conversion of 2,500kg ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies – Berlex Lab International and Danas Pharmaceutical.

On Friday, CNS Judge Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry rejected bail pleas of Dr Hafeez, Danas Pharmaceutical’s chief executive officer Ansar Farooq and drug controller Ansar Sheikh.

For the first time the ANF has included the names of Mr Shahabuddin, Ali Musa and Khushnood Lashari in the challan’s accused column since it started investigation into the ephedrine scandal in September last year. In the first FIR registered on Oct 10 last year, none of them were nominated as accused in the case.

The others declared absconders are: Tauqeer Ali Khan and Anjum Shah, the alleged front-men; Col (retd) Tahirul Wadood Lahoti, director of Danas Pharmaceutical company; Syed Tanveer Husain Sherazi and Chaudhry Abdul Waheed.

Ansar Farooq, Berlex Lab’s owner Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Hashim Khan Tareen of Cane Pharmaceutical, Ehsanur Rehman, Dr Hafeez, Sheikh Ansar and deputy drug controller Abdul Sattar Sohrani are among the accused.

Former director general of health Dr Rasheed Juma and director of Danas Pharmaceutical Rizwan Ahmed Khan have, however, been declared approvers in the ephedrine case.

In his approver statement, Dr Juma alleged that Musa Gilani and Khushnood Lashari had pressurised him to allocate 6,000kg ephedrine to Berlex Lab.

He said they had deliberately not forwarded the summary for his service extension to the prime minister because they wanted to use it as a blackmailing tool.

Dr Juma said Sheikh Ansar was an accomplice of Mr Shahabuddin, Musa Gilani and Mr Lashari who were behind the allocation and local sale conversion of the controlled chemicals.

In his statement, Rizwan Khan said the ephedrine quota had been sold to smugglers who sent it to Iran via Quetta and Taftan. He
claimed that Danas Pharmaceutical had paid Rs6 million to Anjum Shah, an alleged agent of Mr Shahabuddin, to get 2,500kg ephedrine quota.

ANF sources told Dawn that if the accused continued to remain absconders the force would confiscate their property. They said the ANF had already started the process of ascertaining movable and immovable property of the accused, which would be submitted to the court for attachment. The court, they added, might ordered confiscation of their property.

Abdul Rasheed Sheikh, the counsel for Makhdoom Shahabuddin, told Dawn that his client and Musa Gilani would move their bail applications in a couple of days. He said that after the rejection of their bail pleas by a division bench of the Lahore High Court,
the next appellate forum was the Supreme Court.

“We are hopeful of getting justice from the apex court,” he added.

PML-N MNA Hanif Abbasi is one of the accused in Ephedrine case . — File photo

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench on Thursday granted Hanif Abbasi’s request for interim bail in the ephedrine case until Sept 12, DawnNews reported.

The LHC’s division bench heard the petition filed by the MNA from Pakistan Muslim League -  Nawaz (PML-N) requesting the court to grant him interim bail.

Abbasi had been accused of being involved in the misuse of controlled chemical ephedrine.

The court granted bail to the MNA after ordering him to pay Rs 200,000 as surety.

Earlier, Abbasi was granted protective bail on August 13 in the ephedrine quota case by the Sindh High Court which would expire by Sept 7.

On July 29, the ANF had registered a case against Abbasi for his alleged involvement in misuse of the controlled chemical.

According to ANF sources, the case was registered against the PML-N MNA and his partner Zafar Bakhtawari, owners of Gray Pharmaceutical, for misusing 500 kilograms of ephedrine.

The ANF has contacted the Cabinet division  to obtain records of the orders given by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and former secretary narcotics control Zafar Abbas Lak pertaining to the ephedrine case.

Sources said that the former prime minister had already been investigated in the matter through his political secretary.

Meanwhile, ANF sources said that Gilani would also be directly investigated in the case.