Pakistan Court Acquits Interior Minister In 2019 Narcotics Case

A Pakistani court on Saturday acquitted the country's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah in a narcotics case filed against him during the previous administration led by ousted premier Imran Khan.

The minister was arrested in July 2019 by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Lahore team near Ravi Toll Plaza on the motorway. He was travelling from Faisalabad to Lahore.

The ANF claimed to have recovered 15kg of heroin from his vehicle, while it arrested five others, including Sanaullah's driver and security guards. He was twice denied bail by the trial court but the Lahore High Court released him on December 24, 2019.

During the hearing on Saturday, ANF Assistant Director Imtiaz Ahmed and Inspector Ehsaan Azam dismissed the charges against Sanaullah, declaring them "wrong", the Dawn newspaper reported.

"We never saw any sort of drugs being recovered from the scene," the report quoted them as saying.

Subsequently, the court acquitted the interior minister and all the other people named in the case, it said.

Earlier on Saturday, Sanaullah, 67, and five other co-accused filed a plea seeking acquittal in the alleged drug smuggling case registered with the ANF and argued that the prosecution could provide no evidence to establish the case against them.

The interior minister and other petitioners also claimed that this was a case of political victimization.

Speaking to media outside the court, Sanaullah asserted that it was the right of his party to get all false cases quashed.

"Even the cases against our leadership lodged abroad are being dismissed," he said.

The minister called out PTI chief Khan, claiming he wanted political instability in the country for his own mileage.