PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench has set aside the conviction of a juvenile person for drug trafficking and ordered his fresh trial by the relevant additional district and sessions judge as the judge of a juvenile court.

Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor asked the trial court to fulfil all requirements required under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, for the purpose.

The Anti-Narcotics Force, Peshawar, had arrested the appellant, Naseeb Zada, a resident of Shangla district, on Apr 10, 2012, insisting it had recovered 22kg charas from the secret cavities of his car.

It added that the appellant, who had carried a driving licence and national identity card at the time of arrest, was convicted by an additional district and sessions judge on Dec 12, 2012, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with Rs500,000 fine.

Orders fresh trial by juvenile court

Noor Alam Khan, lawyer for the appellant, said after arrest, his client’s case was referred to the special judge (control of narcotics), who had ordered his medical examination.

He insisted that the examination showed that the appellant’s age was 17 years and seven months.

The lawyer said all accused persons, who were below 18 at the time of an alleged criminal activity, should be treated as juvenile offenders.

He pointed out that another medical board was constituted for determining his client’s age, which also confirmed that he was below 18 at the time of the occurrence.

The lawyer said on the basis of medical reports, the case of appellant was referred to the additional district and sessions judge so that he should conduct his trial under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO).

He said the trial court had ignored several JJSO provisions and convicted the appellant, and had also turned down the request to free him on probation.

The lawyer said under the JJSO, the trial court should mention in the judgment that it had conducted trial as a juvenile court.

He said under the law, the court should inform the relevant probation officer about the offender before asking him to prepare his social investigation report.

EXPLANATION SOUGHT: The Peshawar High Court bench issued notice to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial police officer asking him to explain position on a contempt petition filed by a deceased policeman’s son, who was not provided employment in accordance with an earlier court order.

Mohammad Ashfaq, lawyer for petitioner Rizwan Minhaj, said his client’s father working in the police department had expired during service and therefore, his client applied for his appointment against the quota of the deceased employee’s children but he was not considered.

He said the high court had asked the police on Jan 14, 2016 to appoint his client but the order was ignored in an act of contempt of court.

Additional advocate general Rabnawaz said certain amendments were made to the relevant rules after which such like appointments could not be made.

He said every candidate had to sit the Public Service Commission examination.

The bench observed that the amendments in question existed even when the high court made the judgement and therefore, the order should have been implemented.

It later fixed the next hearing for Aug 29 asking the PPO to explain position on the contempt charge or produce the petitioner’s appointment letter.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2017