KARACHI, March 30: The Sindh High Court gave an anti-narcotics judge another opportunity on Wednesday to answer allegations levelled against him by the prosecution and the defence and their counsel in cases pending before him.
A division bench, which had already referred applications for transfer of 212 cases pending before Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon of anti-narcotics court number two to Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, decided to issue him a third notice in another transfer application. In response to a notice for March 28, the registrar of the court said the presiding officer ‘was on casual leave’. The judge was issued the first notice on March 19 but he failed to submit any comments as directed by the bench, which consists of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Azizullah M. Memon..
The third notice was issued in the course of hearing a transfer plea moved by accused Azizullah. His counsel, Ahsan Iqbal, stated that the case had not proceeded for the last 16 months and be transferred to the anti-narcotics court of Judge Bin Yamin. There was total confusion as the prosecution agency, the Anti-Narcotics Force, has refused to conduct cases.
Federal attorney and ANF counsel Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi said there were serious allegations against the judge and two ANF prosecutors, former sessions judge Zaheer Ahmed Khan and senior advocate Sibtain Mahmood, have declined to conduct cases in the court.
BAIL DECLINED: The bench, meanwhile, rejected bail plea of Faqir Mohammad, who is accused of smuggling 78 kilograms of charas. He was caught by the Cost Guards personnel from the cantonment station as he alighted from a train.
His counsel argued that the Cost Guards had no jurisdiction to investigate a case liable to be probed and prosecuted by the ANF. The recovery was also made by a Coast Guard man and there was no ‘mushir’ in the case.
The bench, which had reserved its order earlier, held that the coastguards had jurisdiction everywhere in Karachi and certain adjoining parts of Balochistan.
Only areas falling within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Customs and other agencies were excluded from their purview. A’mushir’ from the public was not required under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act. Besides, the offence was punishable woith death.
BAIL CONFIRMED: Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, meanwhile, confirmed the prearrest bail granted to Chaudhry Hanif in a human trafficking case in the sum of Rs 200,000 and personal bond in the like amount.
Advocate Raza Hashmi submitted on the applicant’s behalf that he had been arrested and nominated as an accused only on a statement made by the co-accused, Mohammad Ibrahim Memon. Bogus passports were recovered from Memon’s office on Tariq Road and he told the Federal Investigation Agency that the passports belonged to Hanif, who was involved in human smuggling. The lawyer said a statement to FIA carried no weight in the eyes of the law of evidence.
