KARACHI: The trials of hundreds of drug-related cases may suffer a serious blow after the federal government limits the jurisdictions of two Special Courts for the Control of Narcotic Substances (CNS) to specifically try the cases filed by federal prosecuting agencies, it emerged on Sunday.

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

An official notification issued by the ministry of law and justice on Dec 4, 2018 stated that “the federal government is pleased to redefine the territorial jurisdiction of two Special Courts (Control of Narcotics Substances-I and II, Karachi) by excluding the jurisdictions of the local police stations, Karachi.”

The aforesaid notification supersedes the ministry’s earlier notification dated March 3, 2004 through which the jurisdiction of the local police was included to the CNS courts in addition to the federal agencies, including the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), the Pakistan Coast Guards (PCG) and the Pakistan Customs.

The special CNS courts-I and II were constituted in 2000 and 2003, respectively, for dispensation of speedy justice, 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.

In addition to ANF, PCG and Customs, the jurisdiction of local police was included to CNS courts in 2004

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.

Under the Dec 4 notification, now the CNS-I has territorial jurisdictions to entrain those cases sent up for trial by the ANF police stations (Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Society-Karachi) and police stations of the Pakistan Coast Guards.

Similarly, the CNS-II has jurisdictions to entertain the cases sent up for trial by the ANF police station (Clifton-Karachi) and police stations of Pakistan Customs, Karachi.

Judicial sources attributed the move to the directives given by the Supreme Court on March 15, 2018, wherein it had directed the federal government to appoint a judge to an existing non-functional CNS court and also set up two new courts to ensure swift trials in hundreds of the pending cases.

Back then, around 6,000 cases were pending trial before the CNS-II court, which was the lone functional court in the province, as the CNS-I was lying non-functional since it presiding officer had gone on medical leave in Dec 2017.

Therefore, the apex court had directed the ministry of law and justice to make one existing court functional and establish two new courts within two month.

In May, the Sindh High Court also extended the tenure of the presiding officer of the CNS-II for three years and also appointed a new presiding officer in the CNS-I for the same period to keep both courts functional.

The judicial and prosecution officials said the ministry of law and justice was informed that there was a need to set up two more courts to reduce the burden of the cases on the existing ones since it was not possible for the presiding officers to handle such a large number of cases being filed from all over the province.

Subsequently, the ministry of law and justice initiated the process and sought details regarding availability of ad hoc judges, number of the pending cases, requirements for the judicial staff and funds for the proposed new courts.

However, sources said that the proposal was shelved because the finance ministry cited funds shortage as the main hurdle in immediately establishing two more courts and apparently the then government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz preferred to invest in ‘other’ projects that could give them a political mileage ahead of the general elections.

“The interim government did not touch the matter since its mandate was only to conduct elections and also because it could not take any major policy decision, the matter was left for the new government to decide it,” the sources added.

The sources said after deliberating upon the matter at length it was decided that being the federal courts the CNS courts should have the jurisdiction to entertain the cases filed by federal prosecuting agencies only and the drugs-related cases filed by police should be sent to the district and sessions courts which already have jurisdiction to conduct trials in such cases.

Fate of police cases hang in balance

There were around 7,200 cases pending trial before the two existing courts.

By the end of November 2018, the CNS-I had 3,085 cases and CNS-II had 4,112 cases, according to official statistics.

The figures suggested that both the courts decided nearly 706 cases until Nov 2018.

The CNS-I had decided 158 cases — 156 convictions and two acquittals — and the CNS-II decided 548 cases — 485 convictions and 63 convictions.

Interestingly, the conviction rate jumped to 91 per cent in the CNS courts. The acquittal rate remained at around 9pc.

On the other hand, the CNS-II court granted bail to suspects/accused, in nearly 2,200 cases after their arrest.

The CNS-I court also granted bail to the suspects/accused, mostly after their arrest, in almost equal number of the cases.

“The police’s cases put an extra burden on the CNS courts, as they are almost double in number compared to the cases sent up by the federal agencies (ANF, PCG and Customs),” a prosecutor told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.

“Reducing the number of the cases will definitely relieve the presiding officers of the extra burden of the cases,” he said, adding it would also help ensure swift trials and dispensation of the speedy justice to litigants.

Lawyers and prosecutors voiced concerns over the fate of nearly half of the 7,200 pending cases filed by the police and pending before the CNS courts.

They pointed out that the law and justice ministry’s notification failed to mention whether the CNS courts would continue conducting trial of the pending cases lodged by police or the same would be transferred to the district and sessions courts.

“Since exclusion of the local police from their jurisdictions, the courts have no power to continue with pending cases (of police),” said a prosecutor, adding: “If the courts would continue to proceed those cases without being mandated the superior courts would annul their judgements/orders at a later stage.”

“This would ultimately benefit the suspects,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2019