PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has set aside the life imprisonment awarded to a man by the trial court for narcotics smuggling and acquitted him in the case.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali accepted an appeal filed by convict Shah Nawaz, ruling that the contradictions in the testimony of the

prosecution witnesses created serious doubts in the prosecution’s case.

The appellant was convicted by the special judge (control of narcotics substance) on Feb 22, 2020, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs300,000.

The prosecution had claimed that on Sept 19, 2015, a police party headed by assistant sub-inspector Shakeel Khan was engaged in routine checking on Jamrud Road and they had intercepted a suspicious car and signaled it to stop.

It added that the car was driven by appellant Shah Nawaz and the police seized 15kg charas concealed in secret cavities beneath the driver’s and front seats.

Points out conflicting statements of prosecution witnesses

Advocate Shahab Khattak appeared for the appellant and contended that his client was implicated in a concocted case.

He also pointed out that samples collected from the allegedly seized drug were sent for chemical examination after many days making the entire recovery doubtful.

The bench observed that the incident occurred on Sept 19, 2015, whereas the samples were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory on Sept 28, 2015.

It added that the prosecution didn’t give a reasonable explanation for that delay.

The bench observed that application to FSL with regard to samples sent by the police was also not available on record and this aspect also created doubts in the prosecution’s case.

It also pointed out that the FSL report revealed that the chemical examiner had not specified protocols of the test applied to each sample, which was a mandatory requirement under Rule 6 of the Government Analysts Rules, 2001.

The bench observed that officer Shakeel Khan, who seized contraband, revealed in cross-examination that he had not recovered the CNIC or other documents from the appellant regarding his identity, but at the same time, he admitted that he had mentioned the CNIC and mobile phone number of the appellant in the initial report, which was sent to the police station.

It added that the seizing officer had also not mentioned as to how and through whom the samples of the seized narcotics were sent to the police station from the spot and onward transmitted to the FSL for chemical examination.

The bench referred to several judgements of superior courts and declared that appeals were allowed on the sole ground of a missing chain of safe transmission of the samples from the spot until the receipt in the FSL and non-production of the relevant witnesses in whose custody the samples had remained.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022