LAHORE: Hanif Abbasi, Pakistan Muslim League (N)'s vocal stalwart from Rawalpindi and a candidate for a National Assembly seat in forthcoming polls, is not the first known Pakistani politician or political player who is linked to serious drug-related issues.
In July 2012, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had filed a case in the Lahore High Court, whereby alleging that the 52-year old Abbasi and several others had misused 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of Ephedrine, a controlled substance that is known to serve as a medication and stimulant for prevention of low blood pressure during spinal anesthesia.
The drug has also been used for asthma, narcolepsy, and obesity but is not the preferred treatment. According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Ephedrine onset with intravenous use is fast, while injection into a muscle can take 20 minutes, and by mouth can take an hour for effects.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says this drug, first isolated in 1885, is on its list of Essential Medicines and is the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system.
The ANF in Pakistan had claimed that Abbasi's company had acquired far more than the legal limit of Ephedrine and had smuggled the quota to a nearby country instead of using it in the local production of medicines.
On Saturday night, he was arrested, fined and jailed for life for not furnishing proofs of using 137 kilogrammes of Ephedrine in production of medicines. it goes without saying that following his conviction, Hanif Abbasi now stands disqualified to contest elections.
The Ephedrine Case: Allegations also haunt Pakistan People's Party veteran Makhdoom Shahabuddin and former Premier Yousaf Raza Gillani's son Ali Musa Gilani:
On June 21, 2012, an arrest warrant was issued for veteran Pakistan People's Party politician, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, when he was just bracing to replace ousted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani by filing his nomination papers for the top slot. The process had been initiated just within hours of Makhdom Shahab's nomination as country's next Premier by PPP President Asif Zardari.
Consequently, Makhdoom Shahabuddin's nomination was cancelled. Shahabuddin was alleged of violating quota limits for the export of Ephedrine while he was country's Health Minister.
In October 2012, the Supreme Court had extended the bails of Ali Musa Gilani, son of former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and former federal minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Nasirul Mulk, extended the bails for the two accused in the ephedrine scam case.
On September 14, 2012, the Supreme Court had granted interim-bail to Ali Musa Gilani till September 25 of the same year and had ordered him to submit two personal bonds of Rs 500,000 each, after the Anti-Narcotics Force had arrested him in connection with his alleged involvement in Ephedrine case, which revolves around a Rs7 billion scam involving the illegal sale of Ephidrine.
In March 2013, the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court had finally commenced proceeding against Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Ali Musa Gilani, MNA, and Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, a former principal secretary to the prime minister, in this case.
The court had summoned nine accused and issued perpetual warrants for the arrest of Lashari and two alleged front men - Tauqir Ali Khan and Syed Anjum Shah - who were charged with procuring 9,000kg of the controlled chemical for Berlix and Danas pharmaceutical companies.
The same court had rejected a request of Makhdoom Shahab seeking exemption from personal appearance during the trial of the Ephedrine case.
His lawyer had contended that since his client was contesting for a National Assembly seat from Rahim Yar Khan and hence busy in election engagements, he may, therefore, be exempted from personal appearance.
On May 15, 2017, a special anti-narcotics court issued an arrest warrant for Ali Musa Gillani. According to Geo TV, Special court judge Irum Niazi heard the case and charged Ali Musa Gilani, former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Health Secretary Khushnod Lashari, former health Director General Asad Hafeez, former Deputy Drug Controller Abdul Sattar Shorwani, Sheikh Nusrat, Anjum Shah and others.
Earlier in April of the same year, the court had indicted Gillani and 10 others in the Ephedrine quota case which had rocked the PPP government in 2011.
The long-running case involves two Pakistani pharmaceutical companies, Berlex and Danas, that allegedly used political connections to obtain huge amounts of ephedrine and are suspected of diverting it to people in the drug trade who could have used it to make methamphetamine worth billions of dollars.
In April 2012, Anti-Narcotics Force had submitted a 23-page report before the court formally naming eight accused Ali Musa Gilani for alleged allocating 6,500 kg of ephedrine to Berlex Lab International in Multan and 2,500 kg to Danas Pharma (Pvt) Ltd, Islamabad during 2010 to 2011.
The companies have denied any wrongdoing, while Musa had earlier claimed that he was being involved in the ephedrine case on political basis and that he did not have any connection with it.
Research shows that Haji Ayub Afridi, Pakistani drug lord-turned-politician, was arrested in December 1995 in connection with importing hashish into Belgium. He was extradited to the United States soon.
The Americans were able to trick Afridi into leaving his sanctuary in Afghanistan and coming to Pakistan by promising him right of passage. As soon as he reached Pakistan, he was hand-cuffed.
Earlier, in 1989, Ayub Afridi was alleged to have been involved in wheeling-dealing of National Assembly members to topple the first government of Benazir Bhutto.
Called the founder of the Afghan heroin trade, Haji Ayub Afridi had served three years ofhis sentence before being shipped to Pakistan in August 1999 after serving a three and a half-year sentence in a US prison and paying a 50,000-dollar fine. An agreement was reached where he would face another trial in Pakistan.
After the 9/11 episode, he was freed from prison in Karachi after serving just a few weeks of a seven-year sentence for the export of 6.5 tons of hashish. He had also been fined Rs 4 million.
On July 14, 2003, the Special Anti-Narcotics Force Court had handed down death sentence to Haji Ayub Afridi and his two accomplices.
The court had also fined the three accused with Rs one million each.
He was arrested by the ANF in a raid at Thokhar Niaz Baig, Lahore on December 3, 2001. The ANF had seized 4001kgs of hashish hidden in an oil-tanker and a car.
In November 2005, Afridi was accused of international drug trafficking and ordered to appear before the Supreme Court of Pakistan in an appeal challenging an order of the special appellate court against the forfeiture of his assets.
In March 2006, the Supreme Court had allowed the Anti Narcotics Force to confiscate a 100-room 'palace' and other properties worth Rs 167.8 million.
(More References: American think-tank Global Security and the Daily Times)
On October 16, 1997, the "Forbes" magazine had written: Haji Ayub Afridi reportedly started life as a truck driver, then made his first fortune smuggling gold. During the 1980s he forged close ties with General Zia ul-Haq, using his smuggling network to move weapons supplied by the CIA to the mujahidin rebels fighting inside Afghanistan. Afridi used the same channels to move Afghan opium to secret laboratories in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, where it was refined into heroin and then shipped out to the rest of the world.
The American media house had written: "In December of 1995, Haji Ayub Afridi was extradited to New York, where he stood trial on narcotics trafficking charges. He was convicted the following year and is currently serving a five-year jail sentence. For the time being, his Khyber palace stands empty."
Ayub Afridi died in November 2009.
Few global "Narco-politicians" and sportsmen guilty of drug-trafficking:
In May 2009, former England cricketer, Chris Lewis, was jailed for 13 years for smuggling liquid cocaine valued at more than £140,000 into Britain hidden in fruit juice tins in his cricket bag.
His accomplice, Chad Kirnon, was given the same sentence. Both men had denied the charges, according to "the Guardian."
Lewis was carrying a man's handbag and a cricket bag full of cans of fruit and vegetable juice. The five cans held a brownish liquid that smelt of chemicals and turned out to be dissolved cocaine. Evaporating off the liquid would have yielded 3.75kg of pure cocaine.
According to a July 23, 2015 report of eminent television channel, the "Zee News," a Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had alleged that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was caught by Federal Bureau of Investigation officials for holding USD 1.60 lakh and white powder in the US in 2001.
The Indian media outlet had added: "Congress president Sonia Gandhi had then called up then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was Vajpayee who rang up then US President George Bush and got Rahul Gandhi released, a Hindi daily quoted Swamy as saying."
In August 2016, the Philippine president had publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers and military personnel to illegal drugs, revoked their gun licences and asked them to surrender for investigation.
The "Guardian" had stated: "President Rodrigo promptly fired members of the military and police he named and ordered government security personnel to be withdrawn from politicians he identified in his nationally televised speech."
In February 2017, the "New York Times" had reported on how a politician, El Aissami, who was accused of drug trafficking became Venezuela’s Vice President.
The prestigious American newspaper had added: "Mr. El Aissami rose rapidly through the ranks of Venezuela’s power structure, becoming the country’s vice president last month.
The sanctions have now brought international scrutiny on Mr. El Aissami, the son of Middle Eastern immigrants who went from being an unknown student leader to the country’s powerful interior and justice minister. He also became a confidant of President Hugo Chavez. As vice president, Mr. El Aissami wields newly decreed authority to expropriate businesses and lock up rivals seen by the leftist government as traitors."
In August 2016, Richard Silverthorne, the mayor of the City of Fairfax in Unitesd States, was arrested for distribution of methamphetamine in an uncover sting.
Police said an undercover detective made contact with the mayor after creating a profile on a website, which police declined to name. The two then communicated via text messaging.
Another sitting American politician, Trey Radel, who was pleaded guilty in November 2013 to a misdemeanor charge of buying 3.5 grams of cocaine and was sentenced to a year of probation, had resigned from Congress on January 27, 2014, the "New York Times" had reported.
Fablo Lobo, son of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo between 2010 and 2014, was sentenced in September 2017 to 24 years in an American prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine and sell it in the United States.
The hefty punishment for Fabio Lobo was meant as a warning to corrupt members of Latin America’s political elite, the New York City judge ruling over the trial, Lorna Schofield, said.
According to news agency "AFP," Fabio Lobo was arrested in Haiti in 2015 in a joint operation by US anti-narcotics agents and Haitian police
President Porfirio Lobo did not defend his eldest son after his arrest, instead saying that Fabio Lobo had to answer the accusations against him.
Eric Amoateng, a politician from Ghana, was arrested for drug trafficking in 2005 in the United States. He was sentenced on 12 December 2007 to 10 years in jail.
He had travelled to the USA from Dubai with a friend. The trip was ostensibly to buy wrist watches for resale in Ghana with US$9,000 seized from Eric.
Seven boxes of pottery which had landed at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport from London a day earlier were found to contain 136 pounds of heroin. The reported street value of the drugs was about US$6 million.
In 2006, he was also accused of distributing a controlled narcotic substance.