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Friday, June 22, 2012

Arrest warrant for PPP’s PM nominee issued

RAWALPINDI: An anti-narcotics court on Thursday issued non-bailable arrest warrants of Pakistan People’s Party’s MNA Makhdoom Shahabuddin, who was earlier nominated for the office of the prime minister, and Ali Musa Gilani in the ephedrine scandal. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had filed a plea in the court of ANF Rawalpindi magistrate against Shahabuddin and Ali Musa, seeking arrest warrants of both the accused. The ANF verified that unauthorised ephedrine quotas were approved by Shahabuddin. The ANF authorities stated that the accused had allotted 250 tonnes of ephedrine to a company based in Islamabad. The court issued non-bailable arrest warrants of Shahabuddin and Ali Musa and ordered that they be produced before it within one week. Former director general (health) Dr Rasheed Jumma, an approver, verified in his statement to the investigation team that Shahabuddin had approved the ephedrine quota. The latter has, however, rejected the allegations against him and termed them baseless. He stated the issuance of warrant seemed to be a planned action. The warrants were issued just hours after Shahabuddin’s nomination was announced and a day before the National Assembly meets to elect a new premier. An anti-narcotics investigator told the court that evidence given by Shahabuddin and Gilani junior had “not convinced” investigators of their innocence. “We want them to be arrested so we can investigate them further,” he said. Shahabuddin, a staunch Zardari loyalist with a powerbase in Punjab, had been textiles minister until Tuesday. He was briefly finance minister during the 1993-1996 premiership of Benazir Bhutto. But it was his stint as health minister that led to his arrest warrant over the alleged import of an illegal drug in 2010. Political analyst Hasan Askari said suspicion would fall on the military for being behind the warrant, saying it was unusual for junior courts to intervene against senior politicians without being pushed. agencies

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

 

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