KARACHI, May 22: The special anti-narcotics court (ANC), headed by Judge Ali Nawaz Pirzada, convicted on Wednesday a local drug trafficker and sentenced him to life in jail and pay a fine of Rs 1 million.
Syed Karim was arrested red-handed with 10 kgs of heroin on Nov 21, 1998 near the D. J. Science College by the officials of the Anti-Narcotics Force. He told the raiding party that he was waiting for a man to deliver the stuff to him.
According to prosecution, after half an hour a man who identified himself as Arshad Saleem, reached the spot and he was also arrested.
The judge, however, acquitted Arshad Saleem, who was on bail, as the prosecution could not establish its case against him.
The judge ordered that Syed Karim would have to undergo an additional two-year term in case of default on the payment of fine.
Meanwhile, the judge convicted two Nigerian drug traffickers and sentenced them to suffer different terms of rigorous imprisonment.
The judge sentenced Onyenwenkie Charles, one of the Nigerians, to a seven-year term for carrying around 1.5 kilograms heroin. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the drug trafficker.
The drug trafficker had concealed the contraband drug, stuffed into 94 insulated capsules, in his rectum.
He was intercepted on Aug 27, 2001 at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport by the officials of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).
The Nigerian, who had excreted the drug-filled capsules at the Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre during a week-long medical treatment, will have to undergo an additional six-month term in case of default on the payment.
Another Nigerian, Chukwu Gozie Peter, arrested on the same day, was sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for five years and pay a fine of Rs50,000 for attempting to smuggle 922 grams of heroin, stuffed into 66 capsules.
The judge also ordered that the drug trafficker, arrested by the ANF officials at the airport, will have to undergo an additional three-month term in case of default on the payment of fine.
Both the drug traffickers were convicted after they confessed to their offences and pleaded guilty before the court. Over 100 foreign drug traffickers, mainly Nigerians, have so far been convicted this year by the ANC.
CASE AGAINST SPP MEN: Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon of ATC-3 adjourned the hearing of a double murder case against four workers of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan till 29th as the jail authorities did not produce the accused persons.
The case against Dilawar Hussain alias Dildar, Shahzad Maqsood, Abdul Wasim and Muhammed Saeed Awan alias Saeed Kalia pertained to the murder of a moazzin and chowkidar of Askari Imambargah on Feb 9 last year in Jauharabad.
The jail authorities informed the court that the UTPs were not produced before the court as the provincial government had notified the trial of sectarian murder case inside the jail premises.
The judge, however, ordered the jail authorities to produce the accused before the court on the next date of hearing.
According to the prosecution, represented by Mazhar Qayyum, the four accused along with an absconding accused, Asif Ramzi, shot dead moazzin Imtiaz Hussain and chowkidar Muhammed Abbas.