KARACHI: A sessions judge has observed that police personnel stationed in far-flung districts of Sindh lack advanced technology required under the Sindh Control of Narcotics Substances (SCNS) Act, 2024, and advised the Sindh police chief to take concrete steps to upgrade police infrastructure across the province.

The observation was made by Additional District and Sessions Judge (Khairpur) Liaquat Ali Khoso, while convicting a man and sentencing him to 13 years in prison as well as imposing a fine of Rs450,000 for possessing over 3,900 grams of charas.

In its detailed observation, Judge Khoso noted that the purpose of any penal statute is to create a harmonious balance between safeguarding the collective rights of society and protecting the fundamental liberties of the individual.

However, he added that the SCNS Act “appears to have been enacted with legislative haste, without a pragmatic assessment of its ground realities and its structural impact on the criminal justice system.”

Says equipment has to be provided under SCNS Act, 2024

“The statute mandates advanced technological compliance — such as the automatic scientific recording of raids, searches, and seizures — the state has utterly failed to provide the necessary digital infrastructure, logistical equipment, or specialised training to law enforcement personnel, particularly those stationed in remote and far-flung districts,” the judge observed.

“The abrupt introduction of the Act of 2024, followed shortly thereafter by piecemeal, urgent amendments, clearly demonstrates that the law was rushed through without a comprehensive blueprint for its implementation. A law cannot be executed in a vacuum; legislative zeal must be matched by administrative readiness. It is the binding duty of the government of Sindh to immediately equip the primary detecting agencies with modern forensic tools so that the provisions of this Act can be enforced in their true letter and spirit,” he added.

The court also advised the inspector general of Sindh police to take immediate institutional notice of these systemic deficiencies. It urged the IG to take concrete steps to upgrade police infrastructure across the province, ensuring that procedural non-compliance or technical shortcomings on the part of the police do not become a primary cause for the collapse of high-stakes narcotics trials, thereby “frustrating the very object” of the act.

The judge observed that society was already suffering from the menace of drugs, particularly among the younger generation in Sindh. He noted that the problem was especially acute in District Khairpur. The judge added that the objective of the SCNS Act, 2024, was to deter drug trafficking, possession, use and manufacture in the province.

Regarding the absence of video recording in the case, the court observed that the act required the officer in charge of a raiding party to record videos and take photographs of the arrest and seizure. However, the judge held that the relevant provision of the law was “undoubtedly a salutary provision” and could not be interpreted as a mandatory condition precedent to the validity of a lawful raid, search or seizure in the face of demonstrable constraints.

The court observed that adopting such an interpretation would amount to applying an impossible standard and would render every narcotics investigation conducted by rural police stations legally void, a result that could not have been the intention of the legislature.

Referring to the facts of the case, the court noted that it was impossible to record the videos of each and every operation conducted by police, especially in remote areas.

It added the accused was apprehended in a remote area of Khairpur district and the record reveals that the police party was on routine patrol in an official mobile.

“The court takes judicial notice of the fact that as of the date of the incident, modern gadgets such as body cameras and dashboard cameras were not part of the standard-issue equipment for police officers in rural police stations of the province of Sindh.

“It is a matter of common knowledge that budgetary constraints and logistical challenges have hampered the swift implementation of such technologically advanced requirements across the length and breadth of Sindh, especially in its less developed areas,” the judge remarked.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2026