KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has set aside life imprisonment handed down to an appellant by the trial court in a drug peddling case.

A sessions court had sentenced Sakhi Dad to life imprisonment in August 2025 for carrying over one kilogram of ice (methamphetamine) in August 2024 within the limits of Mochko police station.

The convict through his lawyer had filed an appeal before the SHC challenging the conviction order of the trial court and after hearing both sides as well as examining the record and proceedings of the case, a two-judge bench headed by Omar Sial allowed the appeal and exonerated the appellant.

The bench in its order noted that an error had crept into the trial court’s judgment as far as the safe custody and transmission of the narcotics was concerned.

It also observed that as per the trial court, the safe custody was established but the record showed that the property was seized on Aug 24 and it was deposited in the laboratory on Aug 26 since there was reportedly a holiday on Aug 25 while neither the original register XIX nor a road certificate was produced at the trial court.

It further stated that the investigating officer (IO) had admitted he did not deposit the property with the chemical analyst on the same day but instead deposited it on Aug 26, apart from the fact that nothing was put on record to reflect that Aug 25 was a holiday.

It noted that the recovered narcotics had remained with the IO for two days without any reason given or evidence produced at the trial to show its safe custody.

“The chain of safe custody and safe transmission was broken. It is well settled now that a conviction cannot be sustained if the safe custody and transmission are broken,” it concluded.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2026