ISLAMABAD The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw away state's appeal against the Lahore High Court's (LHC) acquittal of an ex-MNA and former member standing committee on narcotics from the charges of smuggling drugs that include contraband heroin.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf that had taken up identical appeals of the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) against the acquittal of Munawar Hussain Manj and commutation of sentences of two alleged co-accused from capital punishment to life dismissed the cases on the grounds that the co-accused had already served the jail term.

A separate apex court bench had earlier granted bail to Mr Manj after furnishing a bail bond of Rs5 million with its assistant registrar but had ordered not to release the co-accused in case they complete their sentence before its decision on the appeal.

The ANF during a haul up on April 1995 had recovered 35 kilograms of heroin and 30 kilograms of charas from a car with a PPP flag crested on its plate on the Lahore Sheikhupura Road. The Lahore bound car was being driven by driver Mohammad Siddiq and a gunman Abdus Sattar.

Advocate Khawaja Sultan, representing the ANF, told the apex court that the during the interrogations, both Siddiq and Sattar had confessed that the contraband items belonged to Munawar Hussain Manj who had contested previous general elections on the PPP ticket from Sheikhupura but later changed his loyalty by joining ruling PML-Q and become former member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Narcotics.

On August 2001, a special anti-narcotics court awarded capital punishment to all the three with one million rupee fine to the former member.

But the LHC on January 28, 2003 commuted the capital punishment of co-accused Mohammad Siddiq and Abdus Sattar, to life but exonerated Mr Manj from the charges of smuggling the drugs.

Subsequently the ANF moved appeals before the Supreme Court on the plea that serious miscarriage of justice had been committed by commuting the sentences and acquitting the member.

Former Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum, while defending the former member, had accused that the entire case against his client was a set up to teach him a lesson for switching loyalty besides the case also lacked strong evidence to establish the involvement of Mr Manj.

Advocate Chaudhry Ghulam Murtaza Khan representing Siddiq told the court that neither Ikram Bandial, the investigating officer and an important witness in the case ever appeared before the trial court nor the impounded car was presented in evidence before the trial court.