PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday ordered acquittal of a labourer in a case of narcotics trafficking and set aside his conviction by a trial court over two years ago.

The bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Mohammad Ayub Khan accepted an appeal filed by the convict named Imdad Ullah, a resident of Khyber Agency, observing that the prosecution could not prove its case against the appellant.

The prosecution had claimed that the officials of Hayatabad police station following a tip-off about smuggling of narcotics on Jan 7, 2013 had stopped a car (LES-338) near karkhano Market and arrested the driver Imdad Ullah.

It was claimed that the police had recovered 183 kilogrammes of charas concealed in secret cavities of the said car. The case was registered under section 9-C of Control of Narcotics Substance Act.

An additional district and sessions judge had convicted the appellant and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs100,000. The appellant’s counsel pointed out that his client was implicated in a fabricated case. He contended that the appellant was a labourer at Karkhano Market and used to carry items with customers to their vehicles.

The counsel stated that on the day of occurrence he was asked by some customers from Lahore to carry the items to their car, but the vehicle was not present at the spot where it was parked. He contended that the appellant had accompanied the car owner to the police station as he could not understand Pashto.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2017