Was granted bail in a fake case after six months, won't accept it as justice: Rana Sanaullah

FAISALABAD: Former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said on Thursday he was granted bail in a fake case after six months hence he didn't accept it as justice. 

The Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) leader held a press conference after being released a day after the Lahore High Court granted him bail in the narcotics smuggling case. Sanaullah said he was granted bail after six months hence he had not been provided justice.

"With Allah as my witness, I want to state categorically that I never used heroin," he said.

Sanaullah said he had suffered for the past six months due to the false case against him. Referring to the trauma that he suffered due to incarceration, he demanded relevant authorities take action against the injustice he suffered.

He said that the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had secured 15kg heroin from a godown and produced false witnesses to back up their claims against him.

"If it was such a large network, why weren't others [involved in drug trafficking] arrested?" he asked. "I used to stand 100 percent with my party before. Now, I stand with them 1000 percent," he added.

The PML-N leader said he had been stating since day one the case against him was a concocted one. Sanaullah said he will repeat the same words on the floor of the parliament.

Sanaullah was arrested by ANF officials on July 1 from Faisalabad while he was on his way to a meeting. ANF claimed the former Punjab law minister was in possession of 15kg heroin when he was arrested.  

The LHC released its detailed verdict in the Rana Sanaullah case earlier today (Thursday) in which it raised several questions on the way the probe was conducted. The court questioned in its judgement why, even though the former provincial minister was accused of operating a narcotics trafficking network, the ANF 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 15kg. 

The judgement also gave some weight to the 'political victimsation' argument made by Sanaullah.