PESHAWAR, Nov 19: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday commuted the sentence of ten years imprisonment awarded to a drug pusher to five years imprisonment.

The bench, comprising the chief justice of the court, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Dost Muhammad, expressed concern over faulty investigation in narcotics cases, observing that the gaps left by the investigation agencies during the probe of narcotics cases always benefited the accused.

The chief justice observed that the investigation agencies in narcotics cases always blamed courts for the acquittal of accused persons, but in fact it was the investigation which always helped the accused. The bench observed that the investigation agencies deliberately left loopholes in cases.

The appellant, Shakir Khan, was arrested by the Anti Narcotics Force on Nov 11, 2002. The appellant was travelling in a passenger coach. The ANF officials recovered nine kgs of charas from a vegetable oil tin placed beneath the appellant’s seat.

The special judge narcotics had found him guilty of drug pushing and sentenced him to ten years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs80,000. The high court reduced his sentence to five years with a fine of Rs20,000.

The appellant’s counsel argued that he was falsely implicated in the case. He argued that conflicting statements were given by different officials in this case. He pointed out that one of the officials claimed that there were 18 slabs of contraband whereas the other one stated that there were 8 slabs of narcotics.

He argued that the appellant was travelling in a passenger coach in which 18 other passengers were also travelling. He added that there was no proof that the tin containing contraband belonged to the appellant.