Bail rejected: PHC cracks down on women drug smugglers

CJ says juvenile peddlers are not usually checked by police.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday rejected bail applications of two women caught carrying hashish.

The drug smugglers were travelling to Punjab when they were stopped by Nowshera Cant Police during a routine check on May 27. Police recovered 29 kilogrammes of hashish from their handbags. The three women, two of them of them sisters, were taken into custody.

While hearing bail requests, PHC Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan said that courts had given concessions to juvenile and women drug smugglers charged under the 1997 Control of Narcotics Substance Act of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). However, he said this had encouraged more women and youth to get into this business. This group is also not as susceptible to law enforcement agencies as police rarely search them, he added.

The CJ said that the number of women peddling drugs had been increasing in the province as smugglers were aware that courts would take pity and set them free. He noted that according to a UNICEF report, 80% of the drugs smuggled were produced in Afghanistan and that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the gateway to supply drugs to other parts of Pakistan.

He announced that courts would no longer go easy on women and juvenile drug smugglers and rejected bail applications of two women. The bail application of the third was granted by a local court at an earlier hearing, stating that she was underage.

The PHC also ordered the trial court to conclude the case within four months.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2012.