PESHAWAR, April 14: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court commuted on Wednesday the life sentence awarded to a convict to three years' imprisonment in a case of drug and arms trafficking.

The bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ijaz Afzal, also reduced fine of one million rupees against the convict to Rs100,000 in default of which he has to undergo six months more imprisonment.

Appellant Arshad Masih, belonging to Rawalpindi, was convicted by the Nowshera district and sessions judge. He was sentenced to life for smuggling narcotics and was also sentenced to three years' imprisonment for smuggling arms.

The appellant was arrested by the officials of the Customs Intelligence Unit on G.T. Road near Khairabad when he was driving a vehicle on Feb 21, 2001. The officials claimed that they had recovered 204 kilograms of charas, 20 kilograms of opium, 200 pistols, five rifles of 7mm and 500 cartridges.

As the accused belongs to a minority community and has no relatives here, his appeal was contested by the Voice of Prisoners. The chairman of the organisation, Noor Alam Khan, contended that the trial court had erred in convicting the appellant under the Arms Ordinance as the appellant was not indicted under that law.

Moreover, he added, that the weapons allegedly recovered from the accused were never produced before the court. He contended that only one kilogramme of charas and opium each were produced before the court instead of the entire case property. The destruction certificate of the seized contraband, he added, was also not produced which made the entire recovery doubtful.