PESHAWAR, Nov 10: The Peshawar High Court on Monday granted bail to a juvenile offender accused of drug pushing.

A single bench comprising Justice Fazalur Rehman Khan directed that the boy, Shareef Khan, should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs1,00,000 each.

The boy was arrested by officials of the Pishtakhara police station on July 11 who recovered six kilogramme of charas from the bag that he was carrying. Last month an additional district and sessions judge had dismissed his bail petition.

Chairman Voice for Prisoners advocate Noor Alam Khan appeared for Shareef Khan and argued that his medical examination report suggested that he was 15 or 16 years old. He argued that under section 10(5) of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 if a child under 15 years of age was arrested for an offence punishable with imprisonment of less than ten years, he/she should be treated as if he/she was accused of committing a bailable offence.

He argued that under section 9(C) of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, the normal sentence given for carrying 6kg of contraband was 8 years, which was less than 10 years and thus Shareef Khan should be treated as if he committed a bailable offence.

Even if he was considered 16 years of age, under section 10(7)(C) of the JJSO if a child remained in prison for four successive months and his trial had not been concluded, he should be released on bail, Mr Khan said.

He contended that there was no report of the Forensic Science Laboratory in this regard and added that Shareef Khan was not aware of the presence of charas in the bag and was asked by an unknown person to carry it to a spot for which he would be paid.

Additional advocate-general Imtiaz Ahmad appeared for the state and contended that the petitioner was caught red handed while carrying charas. He argued that as the boy was more than 15 years old, he was not entitled to bail.