The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday granted a seven-day transit bail to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Makhdoom Shahabuddin a day after an anti-narcotics court in Rawalpindi issued his non-bailable arrest warrants. On Thursday, a judicial magistrate issued arrest warrants against Shahabuddin and Ali Musa Gilani in the ephedrine drug case. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had been carrying out raids to arrest the two high-profile accused in the Rs 7 billion drug scam. Late on Wednesday night, the PPP had nominated Shahab for the office of the prime minister, however, after the release of arrest warrants, the party leadership decided to drop his name.
On Friday morning, Shahab’s lawyer Zahoorul Haq submitted a plea before PHC Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan for transit bail. During the hearing, Haq said that the charges levelled against his client were “baseless” and that there was no mention of his name in the ephedrine case. The PHC chief justice said that the court did not have the record of the case, and asked why Shahabuddin did not go to Islamabad High Court instead of coming to Peshawar. He also remarked that how come a person involved in a case was also a candidate for premiership. The chief judge asked Shahab how he travelled to Peshawar from Islamabad despite the release of his non-bailable arrest warrants, and why he had not been arrested. Shahabuddin’s lawyer said that his client “respected the law” and that if the honourable court granted him bail, he would present himself before the chief justice instead of fleeing away. Consequently, the court issued the interim bail against surety bonds of Rs 2 million.