Daily Times

RAWALPIND: The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday reserved judgement on a petition challenging freezing of accounts of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former MNA Hanif Abbasi and his family members by the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court of Rawalpindi.

The petitions of Hanif Abbasi and his brother Basit Abbasi were heard by a division bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justice Ibadur Rahman Lodhi and Justice Shahzad Iqbal Gheba.

Arguing his case the counsel for Abbasi said that the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) had no power to order freezing of the accounts during the last phase of the case. When asked by Justice Lodhi how the accounts were frozen, counsel Tanvir Iqbal said that the notice was issued by the joint director of ANF after the blocking of the accounts.

When Justice Shahzad asked the public prosecutor that at what stage was the hearing of the ephedrine case, which is under hearing for the last five years, the ANF prosecutor said that an inquiry would be conducted and the proofs unearthed in it would be presented to the court within seven days. If there could be a three-year sentence in any case the assets could be frozen, the ANF prosecutor added.

Abbasi’s counsel pleaded the court to defreeze his clients’ accounts because in the wake of the freezing of factory’s account the salaries to the workers could not be paid. The ANF has frozen even the accounts that had as little as Rs 4,000 balance, he added.

It may be mentioned here that ANF had registered a case against Abbasi and his accomplices in June 2012 under various sections of the CNS Act and a CNS court indicted Mr Abbasi, his brother and other suspects in 2014. The Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court of Rawalpindi had indicted Hanif Abbasi, and eight others in ephedrine case in late October 2014.

Published in Daily Times, August 22^nd 2017.