KARACHI: The Special Control of Narcotic Substances (CNS) Court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for attempting to smuggle 360 kilogrammes of heroin concealed in sanitation pipes in a container for export to the United Kingdom.

The judge of CNS Court found accused Badshah Wazir — said to be an agent of the “international narcotics smuggler” Haji Saleemullah of Peshawar — guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs1 million.

The court said that the convict had failed to produce evidence in his defence, adding: “No doubt, name of accused was not appearing on any export paper of the consignment but sufficient oral evidence implicating accused Badshah Wazir in the crime has come on record.”

Regarding the three proclaimed absconding co-accused — Haji Saleemullah, Safdar and an importer from the UK — the court directed that the case file would remain dormant until their arrest.

However, the court acquitted two co-accused persons for want of evidence against them.

According to the state prosecutor, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had received a tip-off that in February 2022, international narcotics smugglers Haji Saleemullah of Peshawar and others, were attempting to smuggle a huge quantity of drugs to the London, UK, by sea through a container, concealing them in plastic sanitation pipes with the help of their agent, Badshah Wazir of Attock.

Acting on the information, the ANF intercepted the container at the examination area, detained the accused and inspected the cargo, which comprised cartons of bathroom accessories, pipe-fitting materials and bundles of sanitation plastic pipes. Out of these, 60 bundles of sanitation plastic pipes were found to be suspicious.

The ANF recovered heroin from the suspicious pipes, adding that each pipe was separated and weighed, revealing six kilogrammes of heroin per pipe, making a total of 360 kilogrammes of heroin recovered from all the 60 bundles.

During interrogation, the accused, Badshah, allegedly disclosed to the ANF that he had been involved in the crime at the behest of Saleemullah.

A case was registered at the ANF station under Sections 6, 9-C read with sections 14 and 15 of the CNS Act, 1997.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2026