ANF asks court for stiffer sentence for UK heroin smuggling group
The trial court gave one man seven years and acquitted the seven others in the gang.
KARACHI:
The 85kgs of heroin were caught in a Lexus car at Kharkar Chowrangi in Shireen Jinnah on January 16, 2007. It was destined for the UK through the postal services with the connivance of with Post and Telegraph staff. The trial court gave one man seven years and acquitted the seven others in the gang.
Now, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has gone back to court to ask for a stiffer sentence. The ANF’s special public prosecutor, Syed Ashfaq Hussain, has asked for Imtiaz Javed’s seven-year sentence to be converted to life imprisonment. He argued that if someone is caught with more than 10kg the minimum sentence is life imprisonment. He maintained that by awarding a lesser sentence, the trial court had erred in law.
On Wednesday, Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar issued notices to the respondents, including Imtiaz Javed. The ANF has also filed a separate appeal against his accomplices who was exonerated. The trial court set free Tahir Khan, Javed Akhtar, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Naveed Ahmed, Muhammad Ishaque, Saboor and Muhammad Naeem over a lack of evidence.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 17th, 2012.
The 85kgs of heroin were caught in a Lexus car at Kharkar Chowrangi in Shireen Jinnah on January 16, 2007. It was destined for the UK through the postal services with the connivance of with Post and Telegraph staff. The trial court gave one man seven years and acquitted the seven others in the gang.
Now, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has gone back to court to ask for a stiffer sentence. The ANF’s special public prosecutor, Syed Ashfaq Hussain, has asked for Imtiaz Javed’s seven-year sentence to be converted to life imprisonment. He argued that if someone is caught with more than 10kg the minimum sentence is life imprisonment. He maintained that by awarding a lesser sentence, the trial court had erred in law.
On Wednesday, Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar issued notices to the respondents, including Imtiaz Javed. The ANF has also filed a separate appeal against his accomplices who was exonerated. The trial court set free Tahir Khan, Javed Akhtar, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Naveed Ahmed, Muhammad Ishaque, Saboor and Muhammad Naeem over a lack of evidence.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 17th, 2012.