Staff Reporter
Lahore
In its detail judgment in Rana Sanaullah’s bail plea, Lahore High Court (LHC) noted that political victimisation in the country was an open secret and the same aspect cannot be ignored in the case.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader was granted bail on December 24 in a drugs case filed by the Anti-Narcotics Force for allegedly possessing a huge amount of drugs in his vehicle.
LHC in its nine-page bail granting judgment said, “Learned counsel of [petitioner] also argued that case was registered for the reasons that petitioner was a vocal member of [the] opposition party and was criticising the policies of the incumbent government and on that account, he was put behind the bars.”
“However, in the context of [the] petitioner being a vocal political leader of [the] opposition party, this aspect of the case could not be ignored as political victimisation in our country is an open secret.”
In July this year, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had detained the PML-N Punjab president for allegedly possessing a huge amount of drugs in his vehicle, a claim which Sanaullah had denied.
Meanwhile, Rana Sanaullah was released from Camp jail on Thursday after the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued its detailed verdict on the bail granted to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader in a 15 Kg drug peddling case.
Good number of PML(N) workers thronged outside Camp jail of the city and chanted slogans against government and in favour of their leader. The charged workers showered rose petals on their leaders and expressed their joys while Rana Sana and his wife thanked the worker.
The court questioned in its judgement why, even though the former provincial minister was accused of operating a narcotics trafficking network, the Anti Narcotics Force never sought his physical remand to investigate that allegation. The court further questioned why formal documentary proceedings of the seizure of narcotics were not conducted at the time of arrest, and why a sample of only 20 grams of the heroin recovered was sent for testing when the seized quantity was a much higher 15 kilograms.
The court reasoned that from the facts of the case, there needed to be further investigation of the charges against Sanaullah. However, since “the co-accused in the case were granted bail by a trial court, and their bail was not challenged by the prosecution in the high court”, it would be unfair to not allow Sanaullah the same recourse.
It subsequently approved the former Punjab law minister’s bail against two surety bonds worth Rs1 million each.
