A sessions court on Wednesday reserved its order on an application filed by the Karsaz accident suspect seeking post-arrest bail in a drug case.
The woman suspect filed the bail application before the sessions court after a judicial magistrate denied her bail in the case lodged by police under Section 11 (drinking liable to tazir) of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order (PEHO), 1979, after her medical report confirmed that she was under the influence of methamphetamine, also known as ice or crystal meth, at the time of the August 19 traffic accident that killed two people and injured two others.
Last week, she was granted bail by the court in the main case after legal heirs of the victims submitted affidavits, stating that they had pardoned the suspect in the name of Allah Almighty and would have no objection if she was freed on bail.
Additional Sessions Judge (East) Shahid Ali Memon reserved his order after hearing arguments from defence and prosecution sides and set September 13 for its pronouncement.
The applicant’s lawyer contended that the offence was bailable and carried the maximum punishment of one-year imprisonment or a fine of Rs5,000. He said that the DSP legal on whose opinion a separate case was lodged under the PEHO was not aware of the fact that the anti-narcotic law was amended in 2022, which criminalised the possession of ice drug for the first time.
The counsel said that though the possession and transportation of the drug carried punishment of varying prison terms, the law was silent about its consumption. He stated that the investigation officer had collected the blood and urine samples of the suspect in the presence of a woman medico-legal officer on the day of the incident but he submitted these samples for examination two days later.
Therefore, he added, the samples could not be said to be in safe custody or without any break of a chain of safe custody.
The defence counsel said that later, the IO had submitted an application before the relevant magistrate on August 22 for obtaining fresh blood samples of his client for cross-checking the sample with the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences at the Karachi University, adding that though the court turned down his plea, he went to the jail and collected her blood sample illegally and unlawfully to manipulate the samples to obtain a chemical examiner report of his own choice.
He claimed that the police filed a separate case with malafide intentions, and pleaded with the judge to grant his client bail in this case as well.
On the other hand, the state prosecutor, opposing the bail plea, contended that the case was still at an investigation stage as a final charge sheet as required under Section 173 of the Pakistan Penal Code was yet to submitted. He said the suspect was a British national and had a UK driving licence, apprehending that if she was given bail she might flee abroad.
On Monday, Judicial Magistrate (East) Mohammad Raza Ansari dismissed the suspect’s bail plea, observing that her counsel couldn’t satisfy the court about the inapplicability of Section 11 of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Ordinance, 1979, in the current case and that PEHO is not confined to liquor only but includes other intoxicating substances as well.