PESHAWAR: A full bench of the Supreme Court in its Peshawar registry on Wednesday referred four appeals of Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, requesting him to constitute a larger bench for hearing an important point regarding the minimum sentences which could be awarded under the law when narcotics was seized from two or more accused persons.

The appeals have originated from the judgments of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) wherein it had commuted sentences of several convicts in narcoticscases by dividing the quantity of seized narcotics among the number of convicts and then sentencing them on the basis of the share of narcotics of each individual in these cases.

The bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rahman and Justice Umar Ata Bandial observed that as different points of view of the superior courts were available on the point, it would be appropriate to refer these cases to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for constituting a larger bench for deciding this matter once and for all.

Senior ANF prosecutor Moazam Butt contended that these appeals included a common law point. He stated that under Section 9-C of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act the minimum sentence available for trafficking of over 10 kgs of narcotics was life imprisonment.

He stated that the PHC in different cases had adopted the view thatif narcotics were seized from two or more persons the quantity should be divided among the number of accused persons and they should be sentenced in accordance with that share.

Mr Butt contended that in the four appeals the convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court as the quantity of narcotics seized were more than 10 kgs but a PHC bench commuted their sentences to different terms by adopting the mechanism of dividing the seized contraband among the number of convicts. He added that in such cases even if 20 kgs of narcotics was seized from three persons the share of each of the three individual was reduced to around 7 kg due to which he could not be awarded the minimum sentence of life term.

He referred to several judgments of the superior courts and contended that each of the arrested persons should be sentenced for the total quantity of seized narcotics andnot for the share of each individual.

He requested that sentences of the convicts might be enhanced to the minimum prison term.

APPEAL DISMISSED: The SC`s bench also dismissed an appeal filed against setting aside of death penalty awarded to a police constable for killing a citizen at a checkpoint in Dir district.

The bench upheld the judgment delivered by a PHC bench in 2010.

The constable, Yaqoob Khan, of Ghandigar police station in Dir district was convicted and awarded death sentence by the trial court in Dir in 2009 for killing one Imtiaz alias Pervez. However, the court had set aside that judgment.

The family members of the deceased had filed an appeal against the PHC`s verdict. The bench observed that the witness statement was recorded after a gap of 20 days. It stated that there were also other loopholes in the prosecution case.