KARACHI: A Sindh High Court bench has ruled that the Pakistan Coast Guards (PCG) have no powers to prosecute suspects for drug peddling, but to hand them over to the in-charge of the nearest police station after arresting them along with the seized drugs.

Comprising Justice Nazar Akbar and Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan, the two-judge bench ordered the directors general of the PCG and Anti-Narcotics Force and the Sindh police to ensure that such illegality on the part of PCG should be stopped forthwith.

Investigation as well as prosecution of all the pending cases registered by the PCG be transferred to other authorized investigating and prosecuting agencies strictly in accordance with the Control of Narcotic Substances (CNS) Act, it added.

The bench also directed them to intimate it in writing within 30 days through the member inspection team of the SHC about whatever administrative steps need to be taken by them in pursuant to its judgement.

The bench was hearing an appeal of a man identified as Abdul Rehman against life imprisonment handed down by the special court for control of narcotic substances in 2019 after holding him guilty of transporting around 100kg of hashish in a truck in 2013.

It observed that as per the case of prosecution, the commanding officer of a PCG field intelligence unit, Karachi, had constituted two teams for patrolling and surveillance. One of them had arrested the appellant and recovered hashish from the truck on the Superhighway. After filing a charge sheet, the PCG prosecuted him before the trial court, it said.

The bench further said the question remained unanswered as to what was the situation which had compelled the commanding officer to conduct secret surveillance more than 28km away from the coastline on the Superhighway. It surprised the judges since the area in question was already under surveillance of the highway patrol police, local police and Pakistan Rangers, it said.

Allowing the appeal, the bench acquitted the appellant and observed that admittedly the alleged hashish was neither recovered from the possession of the appellant nor from the truck which was owned by one Saad Mohammad.

While referring to a judgement of Supreme Court, the bench said that like CIA personnel, the PCG personnel also seemed to have been wittingly found of exercising powers of investigating the offence under Sections 6, 7 and 8 of the CNS Act and filing charge sheet before the trial court without any express provision of the CNS Act authorizing them to perform these functions under the law.

“Therefore, the action taken by the PCG against the appellant by no means was in accordance with law. These grave mistakes of law in handling the case of the appellant render the entire proceedings against the appellant as illegal, void ab-initio and without jurisdiction,” it concluded.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021