PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench has set aside conviction and life imprisonment awarded to a person by a trial court and acquitted him in a case of narcotics trafficking.

The bench consisting of Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Abdul Shakoor accepted an appeal filed by the convict, Aman Ullah, and declared that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against him.

The appellant was convicted by an additional district and sessions judge on Feb 25, 2020, under section 9-C of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act and sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs100,000.

According to the prosecution, the officials of Jarma police station in Kohat had arrested the appellant while he was driving a pick-up van, and 57kg of charas was recovered from secret cavities of the vehicle on July 27, 2016.

The appellant’s counsel Shabbir Hussain Gigyani contended that the police officials had not followed the mandatory provisions of law related to the alleged recovered narcotics and the accused.

He referred to a judgment of the Supreme Court wherein the apex court had declared that the chemical analysis of the recovered contraband should be done strictly in accordance with the protocol prescribed in the relevant rules.

He stated that the chemical analyst had not followed the court judgment and the prescribed protocol and that the chemical analysis of the alleged recovered contraband was not done in accordance with law.

The counsel also referred to another judgment of the apex court delivered in 2015, stating that the court had in clear terms ordered that chain of events in narcotics cases should be fully proved, including the taking of the accused and recovered contraband from the spot to the police station, transportation of case property for chemical examination and custody of the case property.

However, he added that those directives of the apex court had not been followed, which made the entire recovery of the contraband doubtful. He stated that there was contradiction in statements of the prosecution witnesses regarding recovery of the narcotics.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2022