Back to the slammer: PHC upholds five-year sentence of Afghan national

Division bench rejects appeal of convicted drug smuggler.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) rejected the appeal of an Afghan national on Friday and upheld the five-year prison term awarded to him for smuggling narcotics.

The division bench of Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani dismissed the appeal of Noor Ahmad, who was convicted for smuggling nine kilogrammes of hashish, and sentenced him to five years in prison along with a fine of Rs50,000.



Amjid Noor, the counsel for the convict, told the court that his client was arrested by Hayatabad police on November 1, 2012, after they stopped his motorcycle.

The counsel further stated that the police charged Noor Ahmed under Section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substances Act 1997. However, Amjid claimed that his client was falsely implicated in the case.

Amjid added that his client was visiting Rehman Medical Institute in Hayatabad where his father was being treated. He elaborated that Noor was initially arrested from a park and paid Rs1,500 to the police to set him free. The counsel said his client was arrested again from a shop while purchasing medicines.

He pointed out the samples of the drugs tested by the Forensic Science Laboratory were received five days after the arrest.

“Police say in their report that the color of the narcotics was black, but the lab states it was brown. My client has never seen hashish in his life and was wrongly implicated in the case,” Amjid asserted.

He added that the investigation was carried out by an assistant sub inspector, but the station house officer is the authorised official to handle cases of narcotics.

Additional Advocate General Mian Arshad Jan told the court that the counsel of the petitioner should have taken up the issue of whether the samples were taken from each packet or not during the trial of the case in lower courts.

He also said if the convict was in Pakistan for the treatment of his father, he should have produced the medical documents, which he failed to do. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court dismissed the petition and upheld the sentence.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.