Former premier Gilani under scrutiny in ephedrine scam
ISLAMABAD — Widening its probe into the multibillion rupees ephedrine scam, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has decided to investigate former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in which his son is also implicated.
Published: Sat 8 Sep 2012, 12:09 AM
Last updated: Mon 29 Jun 2020, 2:51 PM
The ANF has begun queries on charges that the former premier illegally posted a former senior bureaucrat as the acting chief of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), ostensibly to derail the investigations.
A local daily quoted sources as saying that Gilani had transferred the secretary of the Ministry of Narcotics Control, Zafar Abbas Lak, and posted him as DG-FIA for “special tasks”.
The sources said that Lak was promoted from Grade-21 to a Grade-22 post within a few hours. He had oversight in the investigations of ex-premier’s son, Ali Musa Gilani in connection with the ephedrine case. The ANF nominated Lak as an accused in the case and acquired permission for his arrest from the trial court hearing the case on Thursday. It also sought minutes of the meeting and copies of decisions taken during Lak’s posting from the Establishment Division.
In a related development, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court granted an interim pre-arrest bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Hanif Abbasi for his involvement in misusing 500kg of ephedrine allotted to his company, Gray Pharmaceutical.
The bail is valid till September 12, 2012.
During the hearing, the ANF representatives informed the court that Abbasi’s company did not have any record of where the drug quota was used.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has asked the ANF and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officers not to unduly harass the owners of pharmaceutical companies and former secretary of narcotics ministry Zafar Abbas Lak, a key suspect in the ephedrine scandal.
The Supreme Court, hearing the case at its Quetta registry, asked the ANF and NAB authorities to submit a comprehensive report by September 12.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, however, told authorities to refrain from “embarrassing” owners of pharmaceutical companies implicated in the case.
news@khaleejtimes.com
iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
