PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the attorney general for Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general to respond to a petition challenging the powers of Anti-Narcotics Force, customs department and other federal agencies in narcotics cases after the enactment of a provincial antinarcotic s law.

After preliminary proceedings, a bench consisung of Jusdce Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim fixed Mar 24 for the next hearing into the peddon Kled by a suspect, Nasir Aziz, arrested by ANF on charges of smuggling narcotics in Peshawar in Dec 2019.

The petitioner has requestedthe court to declare illegal, without jurisdiction and beyond the mandate of KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act (KPCNSA), 2019, the arrests, seizures, investigations and operations conducted by the ANF, customs department and Frontier Corps.

Noor Alam Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, said the KPCNSA was passed by the provincial assembly on Aug 27 and got the governor`s approval on Sept 2, 2019, while the law was published in the official gazette on Sept 4.

He said under Section 59 of that law, the federal law, Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997, (Act No XXV of 1997), was repealed to the extent of cultivation, possession, selling, purchasing, delivery, and transportation within KP.

The lawyer said the ANF was the creation of the Anti-Narcotics Force Act, 1997, which was passed by the federal legislature and was published in the of ficial gazette onApr 14, 1997, before it was extended to the entire country.

He said the ANF was created for the purpose of inquiring, investigating and prosecuting offences related to the narcotics and trafficking of the narcotics and other related matters.

The counsel said under the CNSA 1997, the ANF, customs department, provincial excise and police departments and Frontier Corps in Balochistan and KP were notified authorities to make arrests, seize drugs and investigate offences of narcotics traf ficking through a notification on July 7, 1997.

He said KPCNSA 2019 was extended to the whole province but under it only provincial excise and police departments were shown to be authorised of ficials to deal with arrests, seizure and investigation.

Mr Noor Alam said under the KPCNSA, the ANF, customs department and Frontier Corps had been excluded from exercis-ing the powers regarding arrest, seizure and investigation.

He said the high court recently declared the KPCNSA in line with the Constitution, so the ANF couldn`t make arrests and carry out investigations in the province.

The lawyer said if the ANF arrested people over drug traf ficking charges, it should hand them over to the excise or police department for the registration of FIR and investigation.

He said the registration of FIR and carrying out of investigation in narcotics related cases by the ANF and other federal agencies was an illegal act.

The respondents in the petition are the federal law secretary, KP government through its chief secretary, provincial secretaries of the law and establishment departments, secretary to the provincial assembly, ANF director general and regional director, and collector of the customs department, Peshawar.