RAWALPINDI, Jan 26: A brigadier who held the Karachi Directorate of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) responsible for rescuing Mohammad Hanif Abbasi, a member of the National Assembly belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, in the ephedrine case has been transferred from the Rawalpindi directorate, where he was serving as force commander, to Mangla Cantonment.

Sources in the ANF told Dawn that Brig Faheem Khan was under pressure by his high-ups for the past few months over the ephedrine case as there were certain differences between him and the director general of ANF, Major General Malik Zafar Iqbal.

They said the brigadier had been transferred from the RD-ANF Rawalpindi to 1 corps Mangla Cantt a couple of days ago and he was likely to report at his new station next week.

A couple of weeks before his transfer, Brig Faheem Khan had informed the Supreme Court about the alleged wrongdoing of RD-ANF Karachi and the matter was still pending in the apex court.

According to the sources, the ANF high-ups were not happy over the allegations raised by Brig Khan that the RD-ANF Karachi, headed by Brig Wajid, was wrong to clear Hanif Abbasi in the ephedrine case.

The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench had granted bail to PML-N lawmaker Abbasi on Nov 1 in the case registered against him for misuse of 500 kilograms of ephedrine, a controlled chemical, after he submitted a clearance certificates given by the RD-ANF Karachi.

According to the documents of RD-ANF Rawalpindi, the government of Sindh and the RD-ANF Karachi played a vital role in declaring the PML-N lawmaker innocent in the ephedrine case. Hanif Abbasi is now preparing to contest for a National Assembly seat from Rawalpindi in the coming general election.

The ANF Rawalpindi also placed a report before the Supreme Court along with the appeal for cancellation of the bail of Mr Abbasi.

Holding the Sindh government and the Karachi ANF responsible for clearing the lawmaker, the Rawalpindi ANF alleged that “in an attempt to get declared innocent/rescue CEO Gray’s Pharma Hanif Abbasi MNA, RD-ANF Karachi conducted a bogus inquiry in the case by using the Sindh government’s drugs department and hindered the investigation”. Resultantly, they caused sabotage to the ongoing investigation of RD-ANF Rawalpindi. These steps of sabotage / hindrance in the case are in violation of provisions of law and orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

The ANF maintained that the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), due to sensitivity/importance of the case had directed the ANF for fair investigation but “on the contrary, RD-ANF Karachi has deliberately hindered and caused interference in fair transparent and independent investigation, by conducting a bogus inquiry by misusing the officials of health ministry of Sindh government to cause distraction and distortion in this investigation so that CEO Gray’s pharma Hanif Abbasi MNA is taken out of clutches of law and justice.”

It alleged that the ANF Karachi also kept secret its bogus inquiry from the ANF Rawalpindi who was the investigation authority as the ephedrine case was registered and under investigation in Rawalpindi.

Giving details how ANF Karachi and Sindh health officials cleared the MNA Abbasi, the Rawalpindi ANF stated that after registering the case against the PML-N lawmaker it requested the RD ANF Karachi to investigate the matter as Mr Abbasi had claimed to supply the tablet De-Asm containing ephedrine to a Karachi based firm Arafat Traders adding that “unfortunately, instead of doing needful, they (ANF Karachi) diverted the directions of inquiry.”

It alleged that the RD-ANF Rawalpindi later asked the ANF Karachi to stop further probe and was requested to direct the witnesses to report to Rawalpindi but “the probe continued that too in different direction, surprisingly, without any mandate or authority.”

“The staff of health department Sindh (Chief Drug Inspector (CDI), Divisional Drug Inspector (DDI) and Provincial Drug Inspector (PDI) were also used by RD ANF Karachi,” it added.

It alleged that in order to provide a lead to CDI Sindh for transfer to the case from the ANF jurisdiction, the RD-ANF Karachi instead of Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Act, had sought comments from the health officials of Sindh under the Drugs Act according to which the health ministry would take cognizance of the ephedrine case.

It pointed out that when the matter was being investigated by the ANF Rawalpindi the RD-ANF Karachi without any mandate directed CDI Sindh to collect the samples for chemical tests adding that “it was a matter of great concern and serious attention that these chemical reports were processed at a very fast speed by ANF Karachi and no information was shared with the ANF Rawalpindi for whom these chemical reports were got prepared.”

The ANF Rawalpindi also expressed surprise that RD-ANF Karachi did not provide the chemical reports to them and asked the DG ANF that RD Rawalpindi may take the samples for reanalysis but the accused MNA Abbasi was showing these reports in TV talks shows even before the reports were received by PDI.

The ANF director legal Akhtar Abbas when contacted confirmed the posting of Brigadier Khan but refrained from passing any comment on this particular issue.

MNA Abbasi, however, said that he did not play any role or influenced the investigation.

“Lahore High Court (LHC), Rawalpindi bench has granted me bail because the ANF has prepared false case against me” he said adding that the matter is now pending in the Supreme Court and he has full faith in the courts.

It may be mentioned here that last week, Sheikh Ansar an official of ministry of regulations and services moved the LHC to quash the FIR registered in the ephedrine case in which Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Ali Musa Gilani are also implicated as accused persons.