KARACHI: A special court for the Control of Narcotic Substances (CNS) has sentenced two men to life in prison for attempting to smuggle 168.960 litres of liquid meth (methamphetamine) in juice bottles in a container to Dubai.

Special CNS Court Judge Rajesh Chander Rajput found the owner of the juice consignment, Abdul Qadir, and his accomplice, Imtiaz Ahmed, guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment, in addition to imposing a fine of Rs2 million on each of them.

Another co-accused, Furqan Ali Rashid, who operated a juice processing plant in KDA Colony, was also found guilty. The court sentenced him to six-month imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs50,000.

The court, however, acquitted Owais, Arsalan, and Mohammad Osman due to lack of evidence against them.

According to state prosecutor Abdul Hannan, acting on a tip-off, an ANF team raided the international terminal port in April and seized a container carrying juice bottles that were to be exported to Dubai. During the search, the ANF recovered 168.960 litres of liquid methamphetamine and arrested the owner of the consignment along with his accomplices.

He argued before the court that prosecution witnesses had reaffirmed the version of the FIR in their examination-in-chief and they had remained consistent in their cross-examination.

He argued that prosecution had produced relevant documentary evidence to support the oral testimonies and successfully proved charges against the accused beyond a shadow of a doubt.

He further contended that the investigation corroborated with banking transactions of accused Qadir, which revealed that he had made payments to cover packaging and other related expenses. While, Imtiaz had furnished an undertaking declaring that the consignment was free of narcotic substances. He further argued that the accused persons were part of a drug trafficking network.

On the other hand, accused Qadir claimed innocence and taken plea of alibi, alleging that he was picked up from different location and implicated in this case.

However, the court had rejected the plea and noted that the prosecution had built the case against Qadir on a strong chain of circumstantial and documentary evidence, supported by direct ocular testimony of two official witnesses.

It added that his plea of innocence and alibi through call detail record were insufficient to rebut this chain.

Regarding the proclaimed absconding accused persons — Sajjad, Mohammad Javed, Matiullah, Zafarullah, Irfan, exporter M/s. Rex Traders of Lahore and importer Get Connected General Trading of UAE — the court ruled that the case file shall be kept as dormant till their arrest.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2026