KARACHI: Trials of over 5,600 drug-related cases might face further delays as tenure of the presiding officer of the special control of narcotic substance-II (CNS) court, the only functional court in the province, expires on Saturday (today).

The federal authorities have so far failed to appoint another presiding officer for the court and set up two more such courts in the province.

Currently, there are two CNS courts — I and II —in Karachi, which also cater to the rest of the province.

Sources told Dawn that there were around 2,800 and 3,000 cases pending before CNS-I and CNS-II respectively.

The sources said in fact only CNS-II was currently functioning, as the CNS-I court was lying non-functional since its presiding officer District and Sessions Judge Azam Anwer Baloch was on medical leave since Dec 16, 2017.

Therefore, all the cases pending before the CNS-I had been transferred to the CNS-II, which was already preoccupied and now struggling to decide such a large number of old cases in addition to the newly-instituted ones.

Two more CNS courts have not been established yet

The Supreme Court (SC), while hearing a bail application of an accused in a drug-related case at its Karachi registry last month, had expressed its concern over growing number of cases pending disposal in the CNS courts.

The apex court had directed the federal authorities concerned to fill the vacant post of one court and establish two more special courts within two months.

The sources said the ministry of law and justice in compliance with the SC’s directives had sought details from CNS-I and CNS-II about the availability of ad hoc judges, creation of new posts of judicial staff and number of cases decided in the last five years.

The ministry had also sought suggestions about availability of a suitable place for setting up the proposed new courts.

The sources said the ministry, in response, was told that there was no ad hoc judge available to work in case of unavailability of the presiding officers while no new posts of judicial staff had been created in the last five years.

It was further told that there was a need to set up at least three new CNS courts in Karachi to cater to the rest of the province and the proposed new courts could be set up either in the building of the Municipal Training and Research Institute (MTRI) in Clifton or in the Judicial Complex inside the Central Jail Karachi.

The sources privy to the conversation told Dawn that there was no progress on the matter as the federal ministry of law and justice had yet to sanction two new courts and appoint presiding officer for the CNS-I court.

The judicial officers as well as lawyers apprehended that over 5,600 trials would face further delays as the three-year deputation tenure of the presiding officer of the only functioning court, CNS-II, District and Sessions Judge Obaid Ahmed Khan, was due to expire on May 5.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) chief justice would nominate the sitting district and sessions judges for appointment as presiding officers for the existing and new CNS courts after the federal government would sanction new courts, which had not yet been done, said sources in the high court.

Delayed trials benefit suspects

Prosecution officers believed that delay in establishment of new courts were already badly affecting the trials in over 5,600 cases, thus ultimately benefiting the suspects.

The statistics available with Dawn suggested that 255 suspects facing trials before the CNS-I and more than 700 facing trials before the CNS-II had been released on bail from Jan 1 till April 30.

An analysis of the statistics further revealed that majority of the suspects were granted bail after arrest, as their cases kept pending for long time, while a few suspects were granted pre-arrest bail in new cases.

Staff’s salaries and perks

On the other hand, the staff of the federal judiciary complained that their salaries and perks were less than their counterparts employed in the provincial judiciary.

“There are total 22 staffers, 11 for each court,” a judicial official said, adding “due to shortage of staff they have no substitute in case of emergency.”

It may be pointed out that the special CNS courts-I and II were constituted in 2000 and 2003 respectively for dispensation of speedy justice to the masses, but the objective remained unachieved as most of the cases were decided after a protracted delay.

Before the promulgation of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, all cases of narcotics were tried by district and sessions judges.

However, the cases were mostly decided after extraordinary delays because district courts were already overburdened with civil and criminal cases.

For quick disposal of narcotics cases, special courts were established by promulgating the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997.

Powers were conferred on district and sessions judges to try narcotics cases where special courts for the control of narcotic substances were not established under the act.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2018