KARACHI, May 5: A sessions court issued on Saturday warrants for the arrest of three policemen for failing to appear in court to testify in police encounter and illicit weapons cases.

The CID police had arrested Mustafa Rehman, said to be an activist of a banned militant outfit, after a shoot-out in May 2011 in Sohrab Goth and found unlicensed weapons in his custody.

Inspector Ashaq Khoso, Assistant Sub-Inspector Javed Mahmood and Constable Abrar Ahmed were the prosecution witnesses. However, they had not been appearing in court to record their testimonies despite repeated notices and reminders for the last many months.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (south) Javed Ahmed Keerio issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the policemen through the provincial police officer till May 13 and also issued show-cause notices to the policemen in question.

Drugs court admits complaints for hearing

After an inordinate delay, two provincial drug inspectors submitted three complaints against five alleged violators of the drugs laws in court on Saturday.

The investigating officers — Muzaffar Jaffery and S. M. Khursheed —placed complaints before the drug court against Mohammad Naeem and Abdul Karim of a medical store of Shaheed Benazirabad for allegedly stocking and selling unauthorised drugs in June 2005, and the chief executive of a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm, Pradeep Kumar, production in-charge Mirza Saleemullah and quality control in-charge Najma Parveen for allegedly manufacturing spurious medicines in July 2009.

The three-member drugs court headed by Sathi Ishaq admitted the complaints for hearing and issued bailalbe warrants for the arrest of the suspects till May 25 and June 1, respectively.

Legal experts said that after getting permission from the provincial quality control board the drug inspectors are bound to submit complaints in a maximum period of 90 days.

However, the unwanted delay in submission of the complaints on a regular basis always damaged the case of the prosecution and benefited the accused, they added.