PESHAWAR, March 18: A Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's MPA, Mr Akhter Nawaz Khan, and two former police constables will be indicted for drug trafficking by the court of additional district and sessions judge Shehbar Khan on March 26.
The court on Thursday cancelled the non-bailable arrest warrants issued against Mr Khan after he appeared before the court in person. His arrest warrants were issued on March 10 after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated notices.
Mr Khan, who belongs to JUP (Noorani), appeared before the court along with his counsel Mian Abdul Fayyaz. The court provided him relevant documents and case record under section 265-C of the Criminal Procedure Code and fixed March 26 for framing of charges against him and two other accused namely Mirdas Khan and Musharraf Khan. Public Prosecutor Saleem Khan appeared for the state.
The MPA was granted bail after he was arrested in 1999. At that time he was not an MPA. He was elected as an independent MPA in October 2002 elections from Haripur but later joined the JUP.
Mr Khan was booked along with two policemen in a drug trafficking case. An FIR was registered at the East Cantonment police station on June 21, 1999 in this regard. Both the policemen, Mirdas Khan and Musharraf Khan, were later dismissed from their services.
The issue surfaced in 1999 when constables Mirdas Khan and Musharraf Khan were travelling in a police car (NWFP 2005 Pesh A) which met an accident near Hassanabdal. The vehicle was damaged and was impounded by the area police.
The NWFP police started an inquiry into the incident as the vehicle was not on official duty. During interrogation, the policemen allegedly claimed that they used to smuggle heroin in the official vehicle to Haripur where they handed over it to Akhter Nawaz, who hails from Haripur.
They claimed that they had smuggled heroin in the official car nine or ten times and the consignment belonged to Mr Nawaz. On the basis of their statements the police department registered an FIR under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, and sections 420, 409, 109 and 427 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Mr Nawaz was also arrested along with the two policemen. Later, he was granted bail by additional district and sessions judge Azhar Naseem.
