PHC acquits 2 excise officials of drug smuggling charge

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday set aside the sentence awarded to two Excise Department officials in a drug smuggling case and acquitted them of the charges.

The case was heard by a two-member PHC bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah.Justice Sahibzada Asadullah in the verdict said the prosecution witnesses were produced in the case as if to save the accused.

The judge said that such officials were earning a bad name for their departments.He said that prosecution had failed to prove the case on the one hand and the accused breached the trust of their own department, on the other.

The prosecution had stated that an expensive vehicle was stopped on the highway at the Lachi town of the Kohat district on April 7, 2021. Two employees of the Excise Department, Inspector Faisal Khan and Constable Khanzeb Khan were present in the automobile. On search a huge quantity of charas and opium along with a rifle were recovered from the vehicle.

The accused Excise Department officials were put on trial by a session court. The prosecution had produced eight witnesses against the accused. The court had convicted both the suspects of life imprisonment.The convicts later filed an appeal in the PHC against the sentence. Noor Alam Khan Advocate and Barrister Amirullah represented both the convicts.