High drama as Musa Gilani goes to SC

After two hours of high drama, Ali Musa Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was released after being arrested by officials of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) as he came to the Supreme Court to seek pre-arrest bail on Friday.
As Musa arrived at the entrance of the Supreme Court in the Ephedrine quota case to seek pre-arrest bail, ANF officials intercepted his vehicle and whisked him away after a brief scuffle.
Dr Khalid Ranjha, counsel for Ali, appeared before a three-member bench which was to take up his plea, and apprised the judges about the episode. Taking strong exception to ANF’s intervention on court premises, the bench termed it an attempt to prevent him from adopting legal course.
The bench of Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim directed the ANF prosecutor to produce the petitioner within 30 minutes.
Ali was then produced in court and upon queries, he informed the court that he was taken away by an ANF team headed by Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar.
Justice Nasirul Mulk asked Zulfiqar why had he taken away the petitioner. Justice Tariq Parvez looked more sarcastic in his questions when the ANF officer could not reply satisfactorily.
Zulfiqar said he had arrested Ali Musa Gilani as his bail was rejected by the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench. “I’m sorry,” Zulfiqar added. To the bench’s query, Ali Musa said he had appeared before the ANF for about a dozen times and rejected the ANF’s claim that he was not cooperating with the investigators.
He added that he was not following dictates of the ANF and that was the reason that he was blamed for non-cooperation.
Ali Musa regretted that he was arrested at the gates of the Supreme Court where he had arrived with an impression that ANF would not arrest him out of respect for the apex court.
Justice Nasirul Mulk observed that such a thing had never happened earlier and said Makhdoom Shahabuddin had appeared in court on Thursday in a similar matter and they had granted him pre-arrest bail.
Dr Khalid Ranjha said such things should end once and for all.
Justice Nasirul Mulk told Ranjha he could move an application in this regard as the bench had not closed the issue.
Justice Tariq Parvez said they had taken cognizance of the incident and due to the same, they had summoned Ali Musa.
The bench also took up the plea by Ali Musa for pre-arrest bail against the order of the Lahore High Court and noted that it was indeed regretful that the petitioner had approached the SC for relief but was arrested at the entrance.
The court observed that this very act by the ANF was tantamount to preventing Ali Musa from taking legal course. “We will deal with this matter later during the hearing of the case,” the bench said. Accepting Ali Musa Gilani’s pre-arrest bail until September 25, the bench directed him to submit two surety bonds of Rs 500,000 each with the SC deputy registrar and issued notices to the respondents after conducing initial hearing in the issue.
Talking to reporters later, Ali Musa Gilani said being a public representative he had great respect for the judiciary and had appeared before it for relief, but “people in uniform” had shown with their action that they had no reverence for the courts.
He lamented that he was being quoted as the prime accused in the Ephedrine quota case, although other accused were responsible and his name was not even mentioned in initial challans.
Ali Musa claimed that he had come to the court alone, instead of bringing a number of people who had voted for him.
Ali Musa said the ANF officials had manhandled and harassed him during the arrest bid. He added that he did not trust the ANF officials because he had requested several times for changing the investigation officer. “The investigation officer has submitted an affidavit against me in the case, so how will he prove his own affidavit wrong,” he argued. Ali has been accused of pressurizing officials of the Health Ministry to allocate a quota of controlled chemical Ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies in 2010.