Woman freed for lack of evidence after 7 years

Ramzan, 75, was handed life sentence on charges of smuggling drugs in 2014

KARACHI:

The Supreme Court ordered the release on Thursday of a 75-year-old woman, imprisoned in a case of drug smuggling, after seven years, due to lack of evidence.

A special court for the control of narcotic substances had sentenced the woman, Sakina Ramzan, to life imprisonment in 2014.

Ramzan, a widow and resident of Quetta, was employed as a domestic worker there prior to her imprisonment.

Her employer, Muhammad Afzal, had sent her to Karachi with some electronic items in 2014. He had told her that the items were to be included in the dowry for a marriage and handed over to a person in Sohrab Goth.

However, while the electronics were being screened upon Ramzan's arrival in Karachi, customs officials claimed to have found drugs hidden inside them.

According to the counsel for Ramzan, Hasan Mehmood Mandiwala, his client was accused of carrying 40 kilogrammes of hashish in the luggage.

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He told The Express Tribune that thereafter, the case was referred to a special court for the control of narcotic substances that handed Ramzan a life term. She was shifted to Karachi Central Jail on February 18, 2014, the counsel said.

Mandiwala said Ramzan had filed a plea against the trial court's ruling in the Sindh High Court, but the latter had upheld the former's conviction and sentence.

Then, the counsel added, another plea challenging Ramzan's imprisonment was filed before the apex court, which examined all the evidence presented in the case and found it unsatisfactory. SC annulled the sentence and directed his client's release based on lack of evidence, added the counsel.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2021.