PML-N leader moves bail application in narcotics case
Judge wants more video footage to prove Rana Sanaullah Khan was carrying 15kg heroin
Islamabad: The legal team of the detained Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah Khan has moved a bail application in the special court for Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS) on the grounds of a politically-motivated case registered against him by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).
On Saturday, Khan’s counsel submitted before the court that there was no substantial evidence against him and the charges of transporting 15kg heroin in his vehicle were false and unproven.
The court issued a notice to the Anti-Narcotics Force on the PML-N leader’s bail petition.
Earlier, Khan was produced before the court under tight security and in his brief media interaction in the courtroom he said his belief in the leadership of the party had grown all the more firm and he was more committed to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif than before.
"My family and I will not be scared nor deterred by the politically-motivated cases against us," he said. Punjab police has also taken his son-in-law into custody in a murder case.
The prosecutor in the case presented CCTV footage showing Khan’s vehicle entering and exiting the motorway.
While objecting to the video clip, Khan’s lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar said the video failed to substantiate the vehicle in which Khan was travelling had 15kg heroin as alleged by the ANF in the FIR against him. “It is the footage that shows my client’s vehicle stopping at a toll plaza and then leaving from the exit point,” Tarar said.
He urged the court to summon more videos from the prosecution, if it possessed them, including that of the arrest. To this, the prosecutor stated there was no other video except the one presented before the court.
The defence counsel argued that the court should summon video records of the cameras from Safe City Authority as the footage presented by the prosecution was only a few seconds long and did not show the journey of Khan from the point of arrest to the ANF office.
The court directed the ANF to also grab footage of the Safe City Authority’s cameras.
The court also issued notice to Khan for September 7 on an application of the prosecution seeking permission to confiscate his properties.
The judicial remand of the former law minister is now extended till August 28 when arguments will also be heard on his bail petition.