- In another politically motivated case
PML-N senior leader Rana Sanaullah has been granted bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC) after languishing in jail for six months for allegedly being in possession of 15 kg of heroin. Reportedly kept in a cell reserved for death row inmates, Sanaullah’s trial never began during his incarceration primarily due to the PTI government’s inability to assign the case to an Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) court judge after the one who was initially hearing the case had been abruptly transferred. The Federal Government’s Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) and Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi has remained in the forefront with regards to this case, making media appearances and holding a joint press conference with the ANF chief claiming to possess all necessary evidence including video surveillance footage. If that were true, the prosecution had a very simple task at hand; present the irrefutable evidence it claimed to possess in an ANF court and secure a death penalty conviction. Either the evidence was too weak to even begin a trial or did not exist in the first place; whatever the case may be, Mr Afridi who has made aggressive efforts to create the perception that it was an open and shut case, overexposing himself in the process and resorting to annoyingly repetitive religious sloganeering in the absence of concrete answers to basic questions, has a lot of egg on his face. It is therefore hard to believe him when he says now that there has been “no interference” or political victimization in Rana Sanaullah’s narcotics case.
In the process he has also sullied the reputation of the ANF, an institution that is tasked with the crucial, sensitive and arduous task of effectively combating drug trafficking and distribution in the country. Arresting political opponents on propped up charges that are tough to prove in a trial court has become the PTI government’s hallmark. Rana Sanaullah’s case in particular smells of vengeance and desperation because of the allegations against him and the media trial carried out by the government subsequently to paint him as a drug kingpin who deserves to hang.
