PESHAWAR, Feb 14: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday asked the federal government to ban the re-entry of foreigners convicted in drug trafficking.

A two-member bench, comprising the Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, upheld the conviction of a Nigerian woman and directed that after completion of her prison term, she should be deported. The bench ordered that after her deportation, the government should ensure that she did not re-enter the country.

The bench expressed concern over the growing involvement of foreigners in drug trafficking and observed that somehow they managed to re-enter Pakistan despite having been deported. The bench observed that the government should make a law for stopping their re-entry.

The woman, Ms Bolaji, was arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force on April 14, 2006, at the Peshawar airport. About 3.4kgs of heroin had been recovered from her. She was charged under Section 9-C of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act of 1997.

The special anti-narcotics court had sentenced her to three years of imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs50,000.

Farah Attaullah appeared on behalf of the appellant. She contended that her client was not aware about the presence of the contraband in her luggage. She argued that the contraband had been concealed inside bangles which the appellant had purchased from Gujranwala.

The bench reduced her sentence to one-and-a-half year of imprisonment. The bench also directed two senior lawyers present in the courtroom to pay the fine on behalf of the woman so that she could be released. The court directed that $412 recovered from her possession by the ANF should be returned to her for arranging an air ticket.

LIFE TERMS: The additional district and sessions judge, Gohar Rehman Khan, on Thursday convicted two persons charged with narcotics trafficking and sentenced them to life imprisonment with fine a of Rs100,000 each.

The court observed that the prosecution had fully proved its case against the accused persons, Javed Khan and Haji Khan Shah, both residents of Bara in Khyber Agency.

The accused persons were arrested by the officials of the customs anti-smuggling division on May 26, 2006, when they were travelling in a truck here on Ring Road. The customs officials claimed that they had prior information about smuggling of huge quantity of narcotics to Punjab from Bara.

The officials claimed that the truck coming from Bara was stopped and after thorough search 170 kgs of charas was recovered from it.

The special public prosecutor of customs, Mohammad Safdar Khan, argued that the accused were caught red handed while travelling in the said truck. He argued that the contraband was recovered from secret cavities of the truck.

The defence counsel contended that the accused were not present in the truck and in fact they were arrested from the fruit market and added that the real culprits had escaped from the scene following which the two defendants were arrested.

The court observed that smuggling of narcotics had become a menace for the society which was not only destroying the lives of youth but these smugglers were also bringing a bad name to the country in the international community. The judge observed that it was need of the time to deal with them with an iron hand.

The court observed that it was apathy on the part of law-enforcement agencies that in most of the cases big smugglers were let scot-free and only the small carriers had been apprehended.

It was observed that in the present case, it also seemed that that accused were used as carriers by someone else to take the contraband and the accused due to their poverty agreed to take the contraband without taking into consideration the consequences of their act.