The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader's appeal against the Lahore High Court. The Lahore High Court in its verdict had directed the Anti-Narcotics Court to announce the decision in ephedrine case on July 21. A two-judge bench comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan heard the appeal. Justice Azmat told Hanif Abbasi's counsel that the LHC passed order with the consent of his client.
Abbasi's lawyer contended that fair trial is not possible on day-to-day hearing. Justice Azmat said in murder cases trials are held on a daily basis. He said that the top court cannot intervene when an order has been passed after mutual consent. Abbasi's lawyer, Kamran Murtaza, said that his client did not consent to the decision and demanded that it be expunged from the verdict.
The lawyer said that they should be granted enough time to appropriately contest the case in the trial court. "How can an accused instruct the court about when it should hear the arguments?" remarked Justice Ahsan. Abbasi's lawyer argued that the trial court was to resume the hearing of the case against him in August, but the high court directed it to conduct daily hearings to conclude the case by July 21.
Hanif Abbasi is contesting upcoming elections against Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed from NA-60, Rawalpindi. He faces charges of misusing 500kg of the controlled chemical ephedrine which he had obtained for his company, Gray Pharmaceutical, in 2010. Shahid Orakzai had filed the petition against Hanif Abbasi. The trial against Hanif has been ongoing in a Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court in Rawalpindi since 2012 under various sections of the CNS.
Comments
Comments are closed.