Police officers walk past the Supreme Court of Pakistan building, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 6, 2022. REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has ruled that federal legislation will prevail over repugnant provincial laws, declaring that the Narcotic Substances Control Act, 1997 replaces the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Narcotic Substances Control Act, 2019 in case of conflict.
The ruling was handed down by a division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Hasham Kakar while hearing a narcotics case, in which the court held that federal law would govern sentencing when the two laws prescribe different penalties for the same offense.
The judgment is significant because it reinforces constitutional supremacy under section 143 and clarifies that provincial legislation imposing harsher penalties cannot override a validly enacted federal law in the same area.
According to the facts of the case, acting on espionage information regarding the presence of the petitioner, allegedly involved in the narcotics trade and waiting for customers, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) officials rushed to the spot, where the petitioner was found holding a shopping bag in his right hand.
During a search of the bag, a package of methamphetamine (ice), weighing one kilogram, was recovered and taken into possession by the seizing officer.
“At the conclusion of the trial, the petitioner was convicted and sentenced under Section 11(b) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 2019 to ten years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 5 lacs and in default thereof, to one year simple imprisonment under Section 382-B Cr.PC”
His appeal under Section 24 of the 2019 Act was later dismissed by the Peshawar High Court.
The judgment notes that section 9 of the Narcotic Substances Control Act 1997 provides penalties for quantities exceeding 500 grams, but not kilograms, of a psychotropic substance such as methamphetamine.
Sub-section (2) provides: “Imprisonment which may extend to seven years but not be less than five years, with fine which may extend to eight hundred thousand rupees. »
“On the contrary, section 10 of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Narcotic Substances Control Act, 2019 prohibits the possession, transportation or supply of methamphetamine in the province and section 11 provides for punishment for violation of section 10, for quantities exceeding 100 grams but not exceeding one kilogram, “imprisonment of not less than ten (10) years and shall also liable to a fine of at least five (05) lac.”
The court observed that, admittedly, the penalty under Section 11(b) of the 2019 Act is more punitive than the maximum discretionary penalty of up to seven years under Section 9(2) of the 1997 Act for the same quantity.
The judgment stated that the legal question involved was neither complex nor new, since Article 143 of the Constitution provided a complete answer.
In this case, the court concluded that the trial court and the court of appeal had erred in law in applying the provincial law. It noted that once the FIR was registered under the Federal Act and the evidence was recorded by the Special Court established under that Act, the petitioner could only be convicted and sentenced under the 1997 Act.
Accordingly, the SC quashed the petitioner’s conviction under the provincial law and found him guilty under the federal law.
