Lahore High Court orders arrest of Musa, Shahabuddin
Rawalpindi: A division bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi on Monday rejected the bail pleas of Ali Musa Gilani, son of former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, and former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin in ephedrine quota allotment case. The division bench comprising Justice Khwaja Imtiaz Ahmed and Justice Ebradur Rehman Lodhi inquired from the lawyers for Musa Gilani and Shahabuddin about the absence of their clients.
The bench was informed by them that their clients were unaware of the schedule of hearing of bail pleas. Upon which the court rejected the bail pleas and ordered the arrest of both the accused. Earlier, the bench after hearing the arguments advanced by the counsel for Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Musa Gilani and Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) had reserved its judgement on the bail pleas.
Makhdoom Shihabuddin maintained that he being Minister of Health was actually the complainant in the case and had ordered an inquiry into the allegations that quota was allocated in violation of relevant rules and regulations. He added that under the rules only the DG Health was authorised to assign the allocation of ephedrine quota and that he never endorsed any pharma company.
Syed Ali Musa Gilani, an MNA from Multan, in his plea for bail had argued that his political opponents dragged him into the ephedrine case with a view to maligning him and his father, former premier Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, and that ANF had no solid evidence against him. Former Director General (DG) health Dr Rasheed Jumma in his testimony to ANF in the ephedrine quota scam case had confessed that he granted the quota of ephedrine on pressure from Ali Musa Gilani, Makhdoom Shahbuddin and Khushnood Lashari.
Similarly, Rizwan Khan also said in his testimony that quotas of 2,500kg and 6,500kg were allotted to Danas Pharmaceutical Company and Berlex Limited, respectively. According to him, the agent of the then minister for health, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Anjum Shah, was the front man in the allotment process and then after the allotment of quotas of that drug he was paid an amount of Rs 6 million.
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