KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday upheld life imprisonment handed down by the trial court to two men in a drug trafficking case.

A special court for control of narcotic substances had sentenced Shah Nawaz and Muhammad Saeed to life in prison in December last year for transporting 79 kilograms of hashish in a vehicle in a Malir locality in May 2016.

The convicts, through their counsel, filed appeals against their conviction before the SHC and after hearing arguments and examining the record and proceedings, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha dismissed their appeals and maintained the verdict of trial court.

The bench in its judgement observed that the FIR was lodged timely and the statements of witnesses under Section 161 of the criminal procedure code were also recorded promptly.

One of the appellants was driving the vehicle and other was sitting on the front passenger seat and narcotics concealed in wrapping papers of chocolates and coffee were recovered from the car on a lead provided by the appellants, it added.

The bench further noted that safe custody of narcotics had also been proved from the time it was recovered until the same was sent to a chemical examiner as the head of malkhana and other related witnesses were examined and all malkhana entries were exhibited.

It observed that the court also considered the defence case, which in essence as per the appellants was false implication by police, but no enmity had been suggested between any police official and the appellants.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2022