Hanif Abbasi resigns as SAPM following IHC directives

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi has resigned as special assistant to prime minister (SAPM), following Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision on a plea from former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.

The resignation from Hanif Abbasi has been received by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who is currently visiting Turkey is likely to decide on the matter within a day or two.

The resignation came just ahead of an Islamabad High Court (IHC) hearing, where previously CJ IHC Justice Athar Minallah had stopped Hanif Abbasi from working as SAPM over his conviction in the ephedrine case.

The PML-N leader was arrested just four days before the general elections in the country last year. A former MNA, Abbasi was to contest the 2018 general elections from NA-60 Rawalpindi.

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) registered a case against Abbasi and others in June 2012 under sections 9-C, 14 and 15 of the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Act for misuse of 500kg of ephedrine.

The Lahore High Court later suspended life imprisonment sentence awarded to Hanif Abbasi in ephedrine quota case and ordered his release after his health deteriorated in the prison.

Hanif Abbasi was also interrogated by NAB in an alleged corruption case related to the Sports Board Punjab.

A notice sent earlier by NAB reads: “The inquiry proceedings have revealed that you are in possession of information/evidence which relates to the commission of the said offence. You are advised that failing to comply with this notice may entail penal consequences as provided in Section 2 of the schedule of National Accountability Ordinance 1999.”