Shut courts if oaths to decide cases: DG ANF

ISLAMABAD: Director General Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Major General Muhammad Arif Malik on Wednesday said courts must be closed if cases are to be decided through taking oath. The ANF challenged the bail of the PML-N leader and former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah in the drugs case before the Supreme Court. 

The ANF filed the petition against the verdict of the Lahore High Court, saying that there were sufficient evidence against Rana Sanaullah for being involved in the drugs case. The ANF alleged the PML-N leader was carrying around 15 kilograms of heroin with him when he was arrested from Sukheki in July last year. The Force asked the court to set aside the verdict of the LHC wherein he was allowed bail.

Later, talking to the reporters, the DG ANF asked if any murderer ever admitted in court or in public that he/she killed a person. He said Rana Sanaullah’s case was being heard by the

court and he should provide evidence of his innocence there.

Major General Arif Malik said Rana Sanaullah and Minister of State for Narcotics Control Shaharyar Afridi both took oath and therefore, a draw should be held to figure out who is the culprit.

Responding to a journalist who asked the DG ANF that if he could swear about the veracity of the case, he said courts should be closed if things were to be settled that way. On July 1, 2019, Rana Sanaullah was arrested by an ANF team on the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway near Sukheki area.

The ANF officials had claimed to have seized 15 kilograms of heroin from Sanaullah’s vehicle while they had also detained the PML-N leader’s guard for taking the law into hands. Later, Sana was released from Lahore’s Camp Jail after LHC had granted him bail in narcotics case.

Meanwhile, the government placed the name of Rana Sanaullah on the Exit Control List (ECL). The federal cabinet has approved the suggestion of putting Rana Sanaullah's name on the ECL through circulation of summary.