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Former Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's son, Ali Musa Gilani, who was arrested upon his arrival at the Supreme Court premises for the hearing of the ephedrine quota case earlier on Friday, has been granted bail. The court granted bail to Gilani till 25 September and ordered him to submit two personal bonds of Rs 500,000 each, reports The Dawn. A three-member bench then heard the ephedrine quota case. According to sources, personnel from the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) arrested Musa in connection with the ephedrine quota case, adding that Musa resisted when they tried to take him into custody. Soon after, the apex court directed the authorities to produce Musa within 30 minutes time. Musa's lawyer, Dr Khalid Ranjha, said the former's arrest at the court premises' gate was tantamount to contempt of court, and demanded that the apex court take suo motu notice of his arrest. Earlier last week, the ANF had declared Musa as one of the absconders in its fourth challan submitted to the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court in connection with the ephedrine case. The challan stated that former director general of health Dr Asad Hafeez misused his authority in allocation and local sale conversion of 2,500 kilograms ephedrine to two pharmaceutical companies - Berlex Lab International and Danas Pharmaceutical. Musa's name, along with the names of Makhdoom Shahab and Khushnood Lashari, was included in the challan's accused column. Moreover, former director general of health Dr Rasheed Juma, who had been declared an approver in the case, had alleged that Musa and Lashari had pressurised him to allocate 6,000 kilograms of ephedrine to Berlex Lab. Musa was declared absconder after the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court dismissed his pre-arrest bail petitions in the ephedrine scam.

Gilani's son given bail after arrest in ephedrine quota case