Director General Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Major General Muhammad Arif Malik on Wednesday said that drug trafficking case against senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah is before the court and let the court decide it.

When he was asked about opposite statements under oath given by Sanaullah and Minister for Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi, who traded barbs with each other on the drug case, the DG ANF replied if decisions are supposed to be taken on oath then courts should be closed down.

Talking to reporters after the meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Narcotics Control, he said that no accused has ever accepted his crime. "A murderer would never admit committing the crime. The PML-N leader's case is before the court and he should prove his innocence there," he said.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on December 23 granted bail to Sanaullah in the drug trafficking case against two surety bonds of Rs 1 million each. The ANF officials arrested Sanaullah on July 1, 2019 from Islamabad-Lahore Motorway near Sukheki when he was traveling from Faisalabad to Lahore.

Earlier in the committee meeting, a senior official of ANF told the committee that manufacturing of synthetic drug is underway in Pakistan at a small level. "The drug dealers in Afghanistan who were earlier involved in manufacturing of other drugs have now started manufacturing synthetic drugs," he further said. He said that Iran is one the big producers of amphetamine, one of synthetic drugs. Amphetamine and methamphetamine are mostly smuggled through western boarder. Most of the seizures are made in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, he said.

The official said that due to lack of knowledge, ice is considered as party drug. Students due to various factors use this drug as party drug and later become addicts. Ice is a synthetic drug which is used in very less quantity due to high potency, he said, adding that drug peddlers easily get bail due to weak anti-narcotics laws. He said that in the proposed amendment to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, punishment and fine have been increased.

MNA Salahuddin Ayubi presided over the meeting and MNAs Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, Gul Dad Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Mohsin Dawar, Uzma Riaz, Shahida Akhtar Ali and Nusrat Wahid, and senior official of Ministry of Narcotics Control attended the meeting.