ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has observed that prosecution in narcotics cases often targets street- peddlers, while major traffickers and suppliers remain beyond the reach of justice.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar and comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Ishitiaq Ibrahim announced judgment in a narcotics case.
Petitioners Mahmood Khan and others had challenged the Sindh High Court judgment maintaining conviction by a Jacobabad court.
The Supreme Court however, allowed the appeal, set aside the sentences awarded to the petitioners and acquitted them of the charge, ordering their release.
“The prosecution failed to produce the Moharrar/Malkhana Incharge, failed to produce relevant custody record, failed to establish safe transmission, failed to produce the registered owner of the vehicle, failed to produce or satisfactorily account for the vehicle as case property, and failed to explain the contradictory description of the vehicle”, says an eight-page judgment authored by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar
The court held that these omissions strike at the root of the prosecution case therefore, the petitioners are, entitled to benefit of doubt.
