LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Tuesday disposed of a petition, filed by Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) challenging trial court’s orders of summoning video record of the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) and the Call Data Record (CDR) of investigating officer in a narcotics case against PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan.
The bench disposed of the matter after a prosecutor, on behalf of the bureau, sought permission to withdraw the case, during proceedings.
The bench comprising Justice Aalia Neelum and Justice Sardar Muhammad Safraz Dogar heard the plea. ANF had submitted, through the petition, that a duty judge could only decide the matters of urgent nature only but the duty judge of a special court for Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS) allowed two applications of defence and summoned record from the PSCA and a mobile phone company while hearing the case of Rana Sanaullah.
He contended that the step of accepting the defence’s applications before indictment of the accused was not in accordance with the law. He requested the court to set aside orders as applications allowed by the duty judge were not of an urgent nature.
On July 1, ANF officials arrested Rana Sanaullah, who served as the Punjab law minister during the former PML-N government, from the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway near Sukheki, while he was travelling from Faisalabad to Lahore.
ANF had registered an FIR against the PML-N leader under 9-C, 15 and 17 of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act. It was alleged that ANF recovered 15-kilograms of heroin and other drugs from Sanaullah’s car whereas the operation was conducted on a tip-off.
The trial court had dismissed two bail petitions of Rana Sanaullah, filed on different grounds.
