KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld the life imprisonment of a man but set aside his wife’s conviction in a drug peddling case.

A division bench headed by Justice Omar Sial passed this order while hearing appeals against conviction filed by Naseebullah and his wife Bakhtawar.

The couple was sentenced to life in prison in May 2024 by a sessions court, which found them guilty of transporting over 18 kilograms of hashish in a rickshaw within the remit of the Mochko police station in May 2022.

The convicts, through their lawyer, had filed appeals in the SHC and the bench announced its order after hearing parties concerned and examining the record and proceedings of the case.

The SHC noted that the contraband was found in a rickshaw, driven by the male appellant, and it was not justified to attribute such narcotics to the woman in the absence of any evidence linking her to the possession or control of the vehicle.

It said that the woman with her minor child had been confined in jail and the damage to the child from further stay in the detention facility will be far greater than keeping her imprisoned.

Irked by the lawyer for the appellants, the bench remarked: “This court, already inundated with high volumes of appeals, has had everything under the sun thrown at it in the shape of written arguments. No case law has been cited, and the arguments appear to be AI-generated. Such a practice is not appreciated.”

It observed that the court found no reason to warrant interference with the judgement of the trial court as far as appellant Naseebullah was concerned, but it closely examined whether the woman appellant was in conscious possession of the narcotics.

It maintained that hashish was recovered from two sacks in a rickshaw being driven by Naseebullah and there was a strong possibility that his wife, who is a simple, conservative and rural lady, was not aware that her husband was transporting narcotics and using her as a shield against police checking.

“In the present case, attributing the illicit narcotics found in the rickshaw to Bakhtawar cannot be justified in the absence of any evidence linking her to the possession or control of the vehicle, as the prosecution failed to provide evidence that she was aware of the narcotics in the vehicle. Since she lacked a possessory right in, or control over, the vehicle, it cannot be inferred that she had knowledge of the narcotics,” it added.

The bench maintained the conviction of Naseebullah and exonerated his wife by setting aside her sentence and directed the jail authorities to release her forthwith if not required in any other custody case.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2026