LHC orders shifting of Hanif Abbasi to hospital

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday directed the authorities concerned to shift ailing Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi from jail to Shaikh Zayed Hospital for medical treatment.

Headed by Justice Aalia Neelum, a division bench of the high court ordered on a plea by the incarcerated PML-N leader who according to his counsel is suffering from heart and renal diseases.

The court censured Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) prosecutor after he opposed shifting of Abbasi to hospital, suggesting that his medical reports be summoned to ascertain the truth instead of shifting him to a hospital.

“This is a matter of human health. Such harsh behaviour should not be adopted,” the bench remarked. In the previous hearing, the appellant’s lawyer had contended before the judges that Abbasi was suffering from four different diseases, adding he also suffered a cardiac arrest inside the jail. He argued seven other accused named in the case had been freed by the trial court while his client was awarded life term.

The lawyer pleaded to the court to suspend his client’s sentence and order his release on bail. Last year in July, Abbasi was arrested from the court premises soon after the ANF Court of Rawalpindi Judge Sardar Akram awarded him life imprisonment. The judge, however, acquitted seven other accused persons owing to lack of evidence.

ANF had registered a case against Abbasi and his accomplices in June 2012 under Sections 9-C, 14 and 15 of the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Act for misuse of 500kg ephedrine. The court also fixed Abbasi’s main appeal against conviction and petition for suspension of sentence for April 11.