PESHAWAR, Oct 22: The Peshawar High Court on Friday took exception to violations of different provisions of law by the local police in narcotics cases and observed that the police always served their own personal interests.

A single-bench of the high court comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed granted bail to an alleged drug pusher as the police had sent the sample of the contraband for chemical examination with a delay of 15 days.

The bench directed that the accused-petitioner, Enayatullah Khan, should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs300,000 each. The bench announced the order after lengthy arguments on the point whether Rules 4(2) and 5(3) of the Control of Narcotics Substance Government Analysts Rules 2001 were mandatory on the police.

Under the said rules a sample from seized drugs should be sent for chemical examination within 72 hours of its seizure. The petitioner was arrested by officials of Shah Qabool police station on Septmeber 2 and the police had claimed of recovering six kilograms of charas from his possession.

The petitioner's counsel, Noor Alam Khan, argued that these rules were binding on the police. He added that the operative parts of the rules were always mandatory in nature and when specific time was given for an act to be done it should be strictly followed.

He referred to various judgments of the superior courts in support of his contention. The Additional Advocate-General, Pir Liaqat, contended that through these rules only directions were given to the investigating agency and these were not mandatory on them.

He added that the police may follow these rules, but if the rules were not followed it would have no effect on the case. The court had also summoned the four police officers concerned including the SHO, Mohammad Haleem Jan, and investigation officer Sameen Jan. Justice Malik Hamid Saeed asked them why they delayed the sending of the sample for chemical examination.