Daily Times

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected review petition of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi against holding ephedrine case hearings on daily basis.The bench upheld the previous verdict which also directed an anti-narcotics court to conclude trial against him by July 21.

Earlier on July 17, the apex court had dismissed Abbasi’s petition against a high court order directing to conclude the ephedrine case against him by July 21. A two-member bench of the apex court heard the case, in which Abbasi’s counsel Kamran Murtaza argued that the ephedrine case was set to be heard by the trial court on August 2.However, petitioner Shahid Orakzai pleaded the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench to order a swift trial from July 16 onwards and conclude the case on July 21.When Murtaza argued that a high court cannot change the trial’s date, Justice Ijazul Ahsan remarked that under Article 203 of the constitution, the high court has the authority to do so.

Earlier on July 11, the LHC had ordered that the narcotics smuggling trial against Abbasi be concluded on July 21.

Published in Daily Times, July 19^th 2018.