Behind bars: PHC rejects petition for drug peddler

Man was arrested by ANF in 2008, after around 99kg of hashish, four kg of heroin recovered from his vehicle

PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) dismissed a review petition filed on behalf of a drug peddler who had been imprisoned for 25 years with a penalty of Rs0.2 million. Naveed Shahzad was arrested by Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on August 27, 2008, after around 99kg of hashish and four kilogrammes of heroin were recovered from his vehicle. A PHC division bench comprising Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Shahjahan Akhunzada was informed by Farhana Marwat, counsel for Shahzad, that neither registration, not any other relevant documents of the vehicle had been recovered from her client’s custody. ANF’s counsel Syed Rehman, however, informed the bench that Shahzad had been alone in the vehicle and has confessed the he was carrying the recovered narcotics.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2012.