LAHORE: On Saturday, a special court cleared Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah of a drug-related charge that had been brought against him while the PTI administration was in power.
Sanaullah was detained by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Lahore unit in July 2019 as he travelled from Faisalabad to Lahore close to the Ravi Toll Plaza on the highway. The police claimed to have detained five people, including the driver and the PML-N leader’s security guards, and recovered 15 kg of heroin from his car.
The accusations against Mr. Sanaullah were labelled “incorrect” and “fabricated” by ANF Assistant Director Imtiaz and Inspector Ehsaan during today’s hearing.The two witnesses in the case separately filed affidavits in court indicating that they were not present when the narcotics in question were not found.
The PML-N leader and all the other defendants in the case were later exonerated by the court.ANF received information that Rana Sanaullah was involved in drug smuggling and transporting heroin to Lahore, according to the FIR filed by the ANF deputy director operations under sections 186, 189, and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and sections 15, 17, and 9C of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act (CNSA) 1997.
According to Section 9(C) of the CNSA 1997, violators are subject to the death penalty, life in prison, a sentence that may last up to 14 years, as well as a fine of up to Rs 1 million.The trial court had twice denied him bail, but on December 24, 2019, the Lahore High Court released him.
