PESHAWAR, July 5: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday set aside conviction of a juvenile offender in a case of drug peddling and remanded his case to the trial court. The bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Mohammad Raza Khan directed that the appellant, Bukhtiar Khan, should be tried as a juvenile offender and not as an adult.

The appellant, Bukhtiar, was arrested on Feb 14, 2000, by officials of police station Akora (Nowshera) while he was travelling in a bus and from his custody 7.5kg of charas was allegedly recovered. He was convicted by the Nowshera district and sessions judge on Jan 25, 2005, and was sentenced to a 14-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs100,000.

The chairman, Voice of Prisoners, Noor Alam Khan, appeared for the appellant and contended that the trial court had tried him as an adult person. He pointed out that during framing of the charge against the appellant his age was mentioned as 16/17 years.

He contended that under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, any person below 18 years of age at the time of commission of an offence should be considered a child. He added that the trial court erred in considering him an adult.

He also requested the court to release the appellant on bail.

The court while setting aside his conviction directed his counsel to file his bail application before the trial court.