PHC releases accused on bail

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday declared that Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) cannot register narcotics cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after September 2019 as the province had authorized the Excise Department to deal with such cases under a new act.

Justice Ijaz Anwar said this while hearing arguments in bail application filed through Danyal Asad Advocate. The bench ordered the release on bail of an accused Fazal Sattar hailing from the Mardan district. He was arrested by ANF at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar in October 2019 on the charges of smuggling “ice” (methamphetamine) drug to Saudi Arabia. Danyal Asad Advocate told the court that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had passed the Anti-Narcotics Control Act. He argued that it was now the jurisdiction of the Excise Department to deal with narcotics cases. The counsel said the PHC had already declared null and void the writ petition against the new law. He prayed to the court that his client should be released on bail. —