LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi on Saturday filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court (LHC), challenging the life imprisonment sentence awarded to him in the ephedrine scam case.
The PML-N leader’s counsel, Azam Nazeer Tarrar, argued that his client had served a jail sentence for six months over an “illegal sentence” and submitted a petition stating that not only should Abbasi’s life imprisonment sentence and Rs1 million fine be suspended, but that he should also be released on bail.
The petition further states that a challenge was previously filed in Rawalpindi, however, the concerned judges recused themselves from the hearing after which there was no formation of a new bench.
The LHC chief justice, who has been requested to form a bench in Lahore to hear Abbasi’s appeal, sought the case file from the Rawalpindi bench.
Abbasi’s appeal would be heard by a special bench next week.
On November 19, 2018, Abbasi had revealed his ill health and kidney problems after being transferred to Lahore camp jail.
He had insisted that the surgery be performed by his own personal doctor.
THE CASE:
On July 22, Abbasi was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special anti-narcotics court in the ephedrine quota case.
Abbasi faced charges of misusing 500kg of the controlled chemical ephedrine, which he obtained for his company, Gray Pharmaceutical, in 2010. The court, in its verdict announced after six years, ruled that 363kg of ephedrine quota could be accounted, adding that Abbasi failed to provide evidence of the use of the remaining quantity of the drug.
The court acquitted seven other accused in the case, giving them the benefit of doubt
On September 22, the convicted PML-N leader had been moved to Attock Jail following a controversy over a ‘leaked’ photo of him lounging with party supremo Nawaz Sharif in Adiala jail.
In the days leading up to the July 25 elections, an anti-narcotics court handed down life imprisonment to former MNA Abbasi in the eight-year-old ephedrine quota case.
