PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Friday granted bail to a person arrested by Anti-Narcotics Force at Bacha Khan International Airport for trafficking intoxicant tablets to Saudi Arabia.

The bench comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar accepted bail petition of the suspect, Mohammad Gul, a resident of University Town, with the condition of furnishing two sureties of Rs100,000 each.

The ANF had taken the petitioner into custody on May 4, 2019, when he was travelling to Saudi Arabia, and recovered from his luggage some bottles carrying 3,025 tablets weighing around 390 grams.

The report of Forensic Science Laboratory showed that the tablets contained ‘Benzodiazephine’, which the ANF claimed was a chemical component of psychotropic substance as defined in section 2 of Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA).

The counsel for the petitioner contended that the seized tablets were not contraband. He pointed out that ‘Benzodiazephine’ was not narcotics under the CNSA.

Similarly, he argued that the item was not included in the schedule of psychotropic drugs as mentioned in the Act.

He contended that a person could not be arrested merely on the grounds that the medicine he had been carrying was controlled drug in Saudi Arabia, when the same was not controlled in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2019