PESHAWAR, Dec 5: The federal government has extended the jurisdiction of special anti-narcotics court to the former divisions of Hazara and Malakand.

A notification was issued by the Law, Justice and Human Rights Division a few days back, stating that apart from the Anti- Narcotics Force Police Stations at Peshawar and Kohat, the territorial jurisdiction of the special court is extended to the cases of ANF Police Station at Haripur.

At present, a single special anti-narcotics court, presided over by Abdur Rehman Khan, is functioning in the NWFP. Apart from the single special court the power of special courts have also been delegated to the district and sessions judges and additional district and sessions judges, but they were only empowered to look after those narcotics cases in which seizure were made by the concerned police and not by the ANF.

Only in areas where the jurisdiction of the special court has not been extended, the district and sessions judges are empowered to deal with narcotics cases of ANF.

Before the issuance of the present notification, the special anti-narcotics court had the territorial jurisdiction in Peshawar and Kohat districts only.

At present, in the NWFP there are four police stations of ANF: one each at Peshawar, Kohat, D.I.Khan and Haripur. The police station at Peshawar has the jurisdiction in the former divisions of Peshawar, Mardan, and Malakand. The police station at D.I.Khan has the jurisdiction in the former divisions of D.I.Khan and Bannu.

The police station at Kohat has the jurisdiction in Kohat division, whereas, the ANF police station at Haripur has the jurisdiction in the entire former Hazara Division.

Initially, in the NWFP the powers of the special courts under the Control of Narcotics Substance Act were only delegated to the district and sessions judges and no separate court was established. However, after the establishment of a separate special court the ANF cases of Peshawar and Kohat were assigned to it.

Now with the present notification the single special court will look after the ANF cases in Peshawar, Kohat, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir, Shangla, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan and other districts of the former divisions of Peshawar, Kohat and Hazara.

Lawyers dealing with narcotics cases claimed that instead of extending the jurisdiction of the present court to other areas, the federal government should have established more courts for those areas.

They questioned how could a single court look after cases in such a vast area.

After the introduction of the local government system last year, the divisions as administrative units were abolished.

However, the Narcotics Division has still been using the old administrative units in its different notifications.