LHC acquits convict after completion of ‘jail term’

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday acquitted a convict who had been released from jail after completing six-year imprisonment in a drug case.

“Who will return the six years I spent in jail. No one can imagine how my family suffered," said sacked police constable Shafa Ullah who was acquitted by an LHC division bench headed by Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry.

He had been sentenced to six-year imprisonment by a trial court in Mianwali in 2015 in a drug peddling case. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in Mianwali had allegedly seized 5kg of hashish from him.

He had filed an appeal in the LHC against  the trial court’s order.

The convict was released by the jail authorities after completing his six-year imprisonment, wile the appeal remained pending.

When the division bench heard arguments on the appeal on Monday, the petitioner's counsel Mian Anas Ghazi contended that the trial court had sentenced him without recording the statement of the official who had taken the seized drug for forensic test.

The counsel said his client had been falsely  implicated in the case. He informed the court that the appellant had completed the sentence.

The bench acquitted the convict after hearing the arguments.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Shafa Ullah said he was happy over the acquittal but it could have brought more happiness for him when he was in jail.

Supreme Court Advocate Anas Ghazi said the convict had completed his sentence  and the jail authorities had released him but his appeal was pending since 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2022.