Interior minister seeks permanent exemption from court appearance

LAHORE: A special court (control of narcotics substance) on Saturday issued notice to Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) for May 21 in an application of Federal Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan seeking permanent exemption for personal appearance in a drug recovery case against him.

The court also sought arguments on acquittal applications of co-accused Amir and two others on next hearing.

A prosecutor of the ANF said the acquittal applications by the co-suspects at this stage were a tactic to delay the indictment. Earlier Rana Sana appeared before the court. The prosecutor contended before the court that the accused should be indicted in the case as they were present at the occasion and manhandled the officials of ANF also. He said forensic and chemical reports against the accused also matched. He said all the prosecution witnesses also confirmed the charges against the accused, hence they could not be ignored. He, therefore, prayed the court to indict the accused in the case.

The counsel of Rana Sana, however, asked the court to exempt his client from personal appearance before the court permanently as he could not appear before the court regularly. The court after hearing the counsel of Rana Sana at length issued notice to ANF for next hearing.

The co-suspects include Usman Ahmad, Sibtain Haider, Muhammad Akram, Umar Farooq and Amir Rustam. They are drivers and private security guards of Khan.

The ANF had arrested Rana Sana on July 01, 2019, and claimed to have recovered 15-kg heroin from his vehicle. The FIR was lodged under section 9 (C) of Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022