KARACHI: A Special Court (Control of Narcotic Substances) has sentenced a man to life imprisonment on two counts for smuggling over 20kg of heroin in two containers to Africa in January 2019, which were later returned to Karachi.

Special Court Judge Rajesh Chander Rajput found the accused, Ali Akbar Mirza, guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs1 million on each count.

The court also awarded him an additional 14-year imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs500,000, in a separate case for attempting to smuggle over 19kg of heroin concealed in rice bags to Dubai.

“Accused being in his sixties, all the three sentences awarded to him by this court shall run concurrently,” the court ruled.

It added that absconding accused Haji Mohammad, Badshah Khan, Mohammad Saleem and importer from M/S Abbas Liaquat Trading LLC, Dubai, shall be kept as dormant till their arrest, and till then case property shall be preserved by the concerned Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) police station.

According to state prosecutor Abdul Hanan, acting on a tip-off, the ANF team raided Port Qasim where an examination of a container led to the recovery of 19.002kg of heroin concealed in rice bags in Feb 2019. He added that the consignment was being exported by the accused, who operated as a proprietor from Faisalabad to Dubai.

The accused had told investigators that he had earlier exported two containers of the contraband to Africa in January 2019. Acting on this information, both containers were traced and brought back to Port Qasim, where a search led to the recovery of 15.010kg of heroin from one container and 5.004kg (total over 20kg) from the other.

The defence counsel argued during the trial that the accused was innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. He contended that the container in question had already been cleared by the customs and the ANF at the Faisalabad Dry Port and dispatched under official seals.

The counsel also claimed that, according to the FIR, the recovered substance was in powder form, but when produced before the court, it appeared in circular shapes.

However, the court rejected the defence’s contention, observing that online sources confirmed that heroin in powder form was highly susceptible to environmental factors and could absorb moisture, causing it to become sticky, solidify, or turn into granules or small hard lumps over time.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2025