PESHAWAR: With scores of people held under a recently-enacted provincial anti-narcotics law seeking bail, the Peshawar High Court on Friday directed the police to produce records of cases against those suspects next week.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ahmad Ali fixed the next hearing into those petitions for Jan 3.

Around 100 bail petitions were filed by suspects mostly held for allegedly possessing narcotics.

Some of them were charged by the police with carrying a meagre quantity of narcotics. One was held with 60 grammes of charas.

Despite the passage of over three months after the KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act (KPCNSA), 2019, was published in the official Gazette on Sept 4, the provincial government has not notified the establishment of any special court, which is mandatory under the new law.

Around 100 held under recent law file bail pleas

The bench asked KP advocate general Shumail Ahmad Butt if the government had formed or notified special courts.

The AG replied in negative and said no such notification had so far been issued.

The KPCNSA was passed by the provincial assembly on Aug 27, while it got the assent of the governor on Sept 2.

While legislating on the matter, the government had claimed that it had incorporated specific provisions to the proposed law for checking the growing use of ice drug in the province.

Scores of lawyers appeared for the petitioners, including Noor Alam Khan, Amjad Noor Afridi, Aqil Mohammad, Ali Zaman, Sahibzada Riazatul Haq and others.

They said the federal government had enacted the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, which had special provisions for checking the menace of narcotics.

The lawyers said the new provincial law repealed the CNSA in the province to the extent of cultivation, possession, selling, purchasing, delivery and transportation of narcotics.

They said the new law had several lacunas due to which the suspects in narcotics cases had to approach the high court under Article 199 of the Constitution for bail after or before arrest.

The lawyers said while 51 of CNSA 1997 dealt with bail matters, the new provincial law didn’t have such provision.

They added that the federal law had a provision about seizure of vehicle used in transportation of narcotics but it didn’t exist in the new law.

The lawyers said Section 22 of the provincial law provided for the establishment of special courts having exclusive jurisdiction of dealing with cases under this law, while jurisdiction of other courts was ousted.

They added that the government had so far neither set up special courts nor empowered the existing judges to hear such cases.

The lawyers said the petitioners were left with no option but to approach the high court for relief against detention.

They said several alleged offenders were caught with very minor quantity of narcotics, which under normal circumstances allowed bail.

The law was challenged in the high court but last month, a bench dismissed the petition and declared the enactment of the law in accordance with the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2019