KARACHI, Sept 20: A drug court issued on Thursday arrest warrants against some police officials and a director of the National Institute of Health Islamabad for not appearing to testify in a number of cases pertaining to the sale of unlawful drugs.

DSP Javed Abbas, Sub-Inspector Gul Fraz, ASIs Munsif Khan and Sajjad Hussain and Constable Sadaqat Hussain and director of drug analysis at the NIH Islamabad Dr Farzana Malik were prosecution witnesses in substandard and unauthorised drugs cases registered against Mohammad Naeem, Mustafa Khalid, Salman Burney and others.

However, despite repeated notices issued by the court the witnesses did not turn up to testify. The three-member drug court headed by Saathi Ishaq issued non-bailable warrants and ordered their arrest till Oct 5.

The court also issued a show-cause notice to Inspector Anis Ahmed for not appearing in court to give his evidence in connection with a case registered against a suspect at a Sukkur police station.