PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to improve the standard of quality in their laboratories testing seized narcotics and appoint qualified chemical analysts in them in line with the relevant rules.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Abdul Shakoor accepted a petition filed by convict Amanul Haq, who had challenged the functioning of two laboratories, Pakistan Council for scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Peshawar and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), on multiple grounds and had prayed the court to declare that the Control of Narcotics Substance (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001, were mandatory in nature.

The bench declared that those rules were mandatory, so the appointment of chemical analysts and carrying out of chemical examinations should be in accordance with them.

Accepts petition seeking ruling to declare narcotics rules mandatory

The petitioner had also requested the court to issue directions for the appointment of the government analyst or chemical examiner strictly according to the required qualification prescribed in the Rule-3 of the Control of Narcotics Substance (Government Analysts) Rules, 2001.

Noor Alam Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was arrested on Mar 2, 2009, on the charge of carrying three sacks with 18kg heroin in his car, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs100,000 by the trial court on Apr 9, 2013.

He said on his client’s appeal, the high court remanded the case back to trial court with certain directions for fresh chemical examination of seized narcotics.

The lawyer said the trial court ordered the sending of samples of the seized drug to the PCSIR for re-examination, which revealed that there were no traces of heroin in 11 samples, while the remaining four samples carried only four percent of heroin.

He said in light of that report, the trial court again convicted the petitioner on Apr 7, 2016, and sentenced him to four years rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs40,000.

The lawyer said the petitioner’s appeal against the sentence had been pending with the high court.

He said two different results of the same alleged contraband showed the inability of the government analyst.

The lawyer said the Control of Narcotics Substance Act was passed in 1997 but since then, the government had failed to establish laboratories having modern techniques and manned by qualified chemical examiners.

He said during the pendency of the petition, the Supreme Court had accepted an appeal of a convict and ruled that the report of government chemical analyst should mention all tests and analysis of the alleged drug, the results of test carried out along with the consolidated results, and the name of all protocols applied to carry out those tests.

The lawyer said the apex court had directed officials of the national and provincial narcotics testing laboratories to strictly follow the rules for efficient and meaningful chemical analysis but the orders weren’t followed.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2019