KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday upheld the life imprisonment handed down to five women by an anti-narcotics court in a drug peddling case.

A special court for control of narcotic substances had sentenced Khadija, Fahmida, Anees, Naiza and Hussna to life term in November last year for carrying a total of 135 kilograms of hashish in a vehicle coming from Hub and intercepted in Balida Town in July 2016.

The appellants, through their lawyers, challenged their conviction before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings, a two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Kausar Sultana Hussain dismissed their appeals and maintained the verdict of the trial court.

The judgement, authored by Justice Kausar Sultana, said that the prosecution witnesses deposed a detailed account of the incident with specific roles of the appellants in which manner they had committed the offence and also gave detail of the quantity of the recovered drugs from their possessions.

It further noted that the huge quantity of hashish had been recovered from them as well as from the bags they were carrying in a vehicle and the record did not show any legal or factual defect in the findings of the trial court about the guilt of appellants.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2021