A petition submitted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former lawmaker Hanif Abbasi praying upon the court to suspend his sentence in the ephedrine case was accepted for hearing by the Lahore High Court (LHC).
A two-member Rawalpindi bench of the LHC comprising Justice Ibad-ur-Rehman Lodhi and Justice Shahid Mubeen heard the matter and issued notices to Central Jail Rawalpindi officials and the Anti-Narcotics Force. The bench also summoned a complete record of the case.
The LHC also sought a response from the jail superintendent by October 9.
A bail petition for Abbasi’s ephedrine sentence was submitted over humanitarian and medical grounds, stating that the PML-N leader “suffers from a cardiac condition and therefore cannot undergo treatment in jail”.
On September 22, the convicted PML-N leader had been moved to Attock Jail following a controversy over a ‘leaked’ photo of him lounging with party supremo Nawaz Sharif in Adiala jail.
In the days leading up to the July 25 elections, an anti-narcotics court handed down life imprisonment to former MNA Abbasi in the eight-year-old ephedrine quota case.
