PESHAWAR: The federal government has drafted a bill to introduce stringent punishments, including life sentence, for the sellers of ice drug (crystal meth) across the country, the Peshawar High Court was informed on Tuesday.

Additional attorney general Manzoor Khalil told a bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Abdul Shakoor that the Narcotics Control Division in collaboration with the federal Law Division had prepared a bill to amend the Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA), 1997, for checking the growing use of ice drug by the people, especially students, and had proposed several categories of punishments in that regard keeping in view the quantity of that drug.

He said the draft amendments awaited approval of the federal cabinet.

Bill proposes stringent punishments including life sentence for sellers of lethal drug

Mr Khalil said the government had proposed inclusion of a new section, 9(2), in the CNSA, to hand down punishments for transportation, possession and sale of psychotropic drug including ice.

He presented a copy of the draft bill in the court and explained different sentences proposed in it.

The additional attorney general said the government had proposed sentence of up to one year imprisonment for possession of the maximum 20gm ice, while for more than 20gm but less than 100gm, the punishment would be imprisonment ranging from one to two years with Rs50,000 fine.

He said for the possession of ice weighing between 100gm and 500gm, the proposed punishment was prison term from three to five years with Rs200,000 fine, while for 500gm-1kg ice, the punishment would be five to seven years imprisonment with Rs400,000 fine.

Mr Khalil said for ice weighing 1-2kg, the proposed punishment was prison term from seven to 10 years with Rs600,000 fine; for 2-3kg ice, 10-14 years imprisonment with Rs800,000 fine; for three to four kilogrammes ice, 14-20 years imprisonment with Rs900,000 fine, and more than four kilogrammes ice, life imprisonment with Rs1 million fine.

The bill said the only punishment for selling ice irrespective of its quantity near a school, college or any other educational institution would be life imprisonment with Rs1 million fine.

The bench was hearing a public interest petition filed by local resident Mohammad Waseem, who sought the court’s orders for different government functionaries to take stern measures against drug traffickers and provide proper treatment to narcotics addicts in local hospitals and rehabilitation centres.

During one of the previous hearings, the court had taken a suo moto notice of the growing use of ice drug, which is considered to be one of the most deadly psychotropic drugs, especially among students, and its easy availability near educational institutions.

During previous hearing, the court had sought reports from the federal and KP governments about the steps taken for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and control of drug trafficking, especially ice’s.

The bench fixed Oct 24 for next hearing into the case directing the additional attorney general to update it about the bill.

Fida Gul, lawyer for administration of Khyber tribal district, said the administration had carried out several raids against drug pushers and had also made several arrests.

The petitioner’s counsel, Hazrat Said, contended that through different ways and means, the drug pushers had been providing narcotics to youngsters, including students, and once the latter got addicted to these drugs, they committed illegal practices to buy them.

He said drug addicts could be seen everywhere in the provincial capital but the government had not been taking interest in their treatment and rehabilitation.

Peshawar capital city police officer Qazi Jamil recently ordered a crackdown on drug pushers, especially that of ice, prompting the police to arrest several culprits.

However, the police claim that lacunas in the existing law help such drug pushers easily get bail from the courts.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018