PESHAWAR, Jan 27: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday set aside the conviction of three persons, including a woman stage artist, in a narcotics trafficking case and acquitted them of the offence.

A bench, comprising Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Qaim Jan Khan, observed that the evidence on record was not enough for the conviction of the three appellants, Iffat Siddiqui, Muhammad Arif and Gulbahar Khan.

The court, however, upheld the conviction of three other appellants Zamin Ali Naqvi, Nasir Shah and Manzoor Khan. The Special Judge (control of narcotics) convicted all the six appellants on Aug 2, 2003, sentencing them to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs500,00 each. They were arrested by the Anti Narcotics Force on Sep 6, 2000 near Chamkani while they were travelling in two cars.

The ANF claimed that it had prior tip about the smuggling of narcotics to Punjab. The prosecution alleged that Zamin Ali, Ms Iffat Siddiqui, Nasir and Manzoor, were travelling in a car bearing registration number FDQ-9612 and the remaining two appellants were in the pilot-car bearing number DMR-77.

The ANF claimed of recovering 144kg of charas, 10kg of heroin and 6kg of opium from the car, FDQ-9612. Advocate Noor Alam Khan appeared for Ms Iffat and argued that she had no knowledge about the presence of narcotics in the car.

He argued that she was a stage artist and had visited Peshawar for a stage show at Nishtar Hall. She had the invitation cards of the show as a proof, but the trial court had ignored them.