PESHAWAR, July 13: A Turkish woman, facing trial for smuggling narcotics, is in an awkward position as she could not understand English and has not been provided any interpreter by the court.

The woman, Fatima Uskarat, who is 25, even could not communicate with her counsel and the counsel has yet to know her actual story as how she reached Pakistan and who implicated her in the case.

The Turkish embassy in Islamabad has also turned a blind eye towards its national and has not extended any help to her.

The special judge of control of narcotics has been conducting her trial and till now two of the prosecution witnesses have been examined. The court has now fixed Aug 8 for next hearing.

The Turkish woman was arrested at the Peshawar International Airport on March 21, 2003. An inspector of the Airport Security Force, Irfan Khan, spotted her in the international departure section. On search of her two bags, the official recovered 21kgs of heroin.

She was handed over to the Anti-Narcotics Force and a case was registered against her under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act. The trial court indicted her on June 18.

“Under the Constitution the accused-woman is entitled to equal protection of law, therefore without an interpreter there are no chance of her fair trial,” said the chairman of Voice of Prisoners, Noor Alam Khan, who has been representing her in the trial.

He told Dawn that presently he was handicapped in defending his client as he could not communicate with her properly and he had to completely rely on the prosecution documents.

Very few information which he could collect from Fatima are that she was working in a drug store in Istanbul, Turkey and was asked by a boy friend to accompany him to Pakistan for sight-seeing and for purchasing some medicines.

However, on the day of occurrence she was arrested alone from the airport, whereas the whereabouts of her boy friend are not known.

Her counsel believed that the two bags recovered from her were too heavy to be carried by a lone woman.

Mr Khan said that it was the responsibility of the Turkish embassy to look after the interest of its nationals, but till now they had not arranged any interpreter for her. He added that he had also searched for any person who could speak Turkish so as to have a detailed discussion with his client, but he could not find anyone in Peshawar.