A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Wednesday acquitted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi in the ephedrine quota case.
The bench allowed Hanif Abbasi’s appeal and set aside the sentence handed down by the trial court.
The division bench, headed by Justice Aalia Neelum, announced the reserved verdict on an appeal filed by Hanif Abbasi against his conviction. The bench had reserved its verdict on the appeal after hearing detailed arguments of the parties, a day earlier. Earlier, in his final arguments, Hanif Abbasi’s counsel argued that the trial court handed down life imprisonment to his client in the ephedrine quota case. He submitted that the conviction was against the case facts as the appellant never misused the ephedrine quota. He submitted that the conviction was not sustainable in the eyes of law and pleaded with the court to set aside it.
However, the prosecution opposed the plea and requested the bench to dismiss the appeal. In July 2018, a Rawalpindi Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court handed life imprisonment to Hanif Abbasi in the ephedrine quota case. However, an LHC bench suspended the sentence and granted him bail in 2019. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had registered a case in June 2012 against Hanif Abbasi and other suspects under sections 9-C, 14 and 15 of the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Act for misuse of 500kg of ephedrine.
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