PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has deferred amendments to the narcotics law allegedly due to political pressure, official sources said on Saturday.
According to the sources, the proposed amendments included a recommendation to abolish the death penalty in narcotics cases.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet withdrew the proposed bill amid what it said were false allegations linking the chief minister to drug traffickers. The sources said the proposed amendments to the Narcotics Act had been presented to the provincial cabinet for approval. They said the Excise and Narcotics Control Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had prepared the draft amendment bill.
The proposed changes were made in the light of unanimous recommendations by the cabinet committee and its sub-committee. Under the amendments, it was proposed that the death penalty be replaced with life imprisonment. The sources said that under the existing law, possession of three kilograms of heroin, cocaine or ice (methamphetamine) carries the death penalty.
The proposed bill suggested a punishment of 24 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs4 million instead of the death sentence.
Penalties and fines for accused persons arrested in other narcotics cases were also proposed to be made more stringent. The Law Department had declared the proposed amendment bill constitutionally and legally sound.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi told Geo News that false allegations had been made against him about links with drug traffickers. He said that this was not the right time to amend any law. The chief minister added that the provincial government follows a zero-tolerance policy against narcotics and that no compromise would be made on this policy. He recalled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan had worked to promote saffron cultivation.
