Deceased Prisoner: Anti-Narcotic Force petition dismissed

LAHORE: A bench of the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by the Punjab Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) seeking directions for confiscation of the property of a convict, Rana Nisar, who died during a prison term. The ANF had arrested Nisar from Lahore in 2001 and recovered narcotics from his possession. A trial court had awarded a prison term which he was serving in Kot Lakpat jail. The ANF had now moved a petition in the SC seeking orders to seize his property on the ground that he had purchased the property from money earned from narcotics sale. Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed that the ANF had failed to prove that Nisar’s properties were bought from money earned by selling narcotics.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2011.