KARACHI, Jan 4: The drugs court on Wednesday directed the federal interior secretary and high-ups of the Federal Investigation Agency to take departmental action against two officials of the FIA for not complying with court orders.

The court passed this directive during the hearing of a case in which Mohammad Arshad Sheikh booked for selling unregistered and smuggled drugs in Nawabshah (now Benazirabad) in March 2004 was acquitted for want of evidence.

The accused through his lawyer had moved an acquittal application under Section 265-K (power of court to acquit accused at any stage) of the criminal procedure code.

The drugs court comprising its chairman Sathi Ishaq and members Dr Javed Bukhari and Dr Nighat Qadri allowed the plea after hearing arguments from both sides.

The court in its order observed that in the face of notices and warrants repeatedly issued for complainant inspector Saeed Ahmed Memon and investigation officer sub-inspector Manzoor Ahmed Lohar of the FIA, they had produced neither the case property nor any ocular proof before the court.

Besides, the court had also written a letter to senior officials in July 2006 and directed them to ensure the presence of the complainant and the IO and production of the case property and other evidence. But they failed to turn up, it added.

Eventually, one of the officials appeared before the court a couple of months ago and assured the court that he would produce the case property but again remained unable to obey the order, the judgment said.

The court observed that the complainant and the IO had shown negligence during the trial of the case and frequently defied the court orders and directed the federal interior secretary, the director general of the FIA and the director of Sindh FIA to take departmental action against both the officials and submit a compliance report.

According to the prosecution, inspector Saeed Memon raided a medical store in Nawabshah on March 30, 2004 and seized unregistered and smuggled drugs and booked the suspect under the Drugs Act.

Two jailed for carrying illicit arms

A judicial magistrate on Wednesday sentenced two men to two and a half years in prison in illicit weapons cases.

The court found Mohammad Shoaib Khan and Noman Khan guilty of carrying unlicensed weapons at the time of their arrest in January 2010 within the remit of the Kharadar police station.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 each and in case of default the convicts would undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

The suspects were separately booked under Section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance.

The men along with their four accomplices have already been convicted by a sessions court in a related case for robbing 15 kilograms of gold from a workshop in Kharadar in January 2010.