PESHAWAR, Aug 10: Accused in narcotics cases are placed in a disadvantaged position due to the non-framing of concerned rules by the federal government for the calculation of percentage of different ingredients in the seized narcotics.

Mostly, the seized narcotics consignments are not pure and in case of calculation of the banned ingredient in the drug the benefit would go to the accused.

Under section 3 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act enacted on July 11, 1997, the federal government has to make rules prescribing the methods by which percentage in the case of liquid preparations should be calculated.

However, despite the passage of more than six years, the federal government has yet to formulate the rules.

The law provides that if an accused is arrested for possessing heroin the investigation agency has to calculate percentage of different ingredients and the accused should be punished for the quantity of ban ingredients, which is calculated by an analysts notified by the federal government.

Presently, as the investigation agencies have not been calculating the percentage, therefore an accused has been convicted for the entire consignment irrespective of the fact whether the banned ingredient is four or five per cent of the entire stuff.

A lawyer dealing in narcotics cases said that under section 35 of the CNSA the federal government or the provincial government could appoint federal government analyst or provincial government analyst.

The proviso to section 3 of the CNSA states that till the rules are framed, such percentage shall be calculated on the basis that a preparation containing one per cent of a substance means a preparation in which one gram of the substance is available.

Interestingly, some of the courts accept applications for calculation of percentage and the sentences were slapped on accused on the its basis. However, majority of the courts still do not accept this provision due to non-framing of the rules.

Voice of Prisoners chairman Noor Alam Khan, who deals with technicalities of the law, told Dawn that section 3 was a mandatory provision of CNSA and the authorities should no longer delay the formulation of rules for calculating percentage.

He said that under the CNSA the government had enhanced penalties and different provisions of Criminal Procedure Code, which were in favour of accused, were done away with like that of association of independent witnesses during recovery of contraband. In such like situation the government had to strictly follow those provisions of CNSA from which an accused could get little help.

He cited an example that presently if a stuff was confiscated on name of charas and you carried out its analysis it would be found that only two or three per cent of the banned ingredients were present in the stuff. In that situation the accused would be punished for the two or three per cent and not for the entire stuff recovered.