Farheen v. State,
PCrLJ 2013 196 · Balochistan High Court
This case is about a woman named Mst. Farheen who was stopped by police at a checkpoint on the Quetta-Chaman Road while traveling in a mini-wagon. Police said they had received a tip that two women were transporting charas (a form of cannabis), searched her bag, and allegedly found 7 kilograms of the drug hidden inside. She was charged and tried under Pakistan's Control of Narcotic Substances Act, and the trial court convicted her, sentencing her to seven years in prison plus a fine.
She appealed, arguing that she had been falsely framed by police, that the witnesses against her were police officials rather than independent bystanders, and that the evidence had been misread by the trial court.
The Balochistan High Court rejected her appeal. It found that the two police witnesses—the officer who prepared the recovery report and the officer who witnessed the recovery—gave consistent, matching accounts with no major contradictions. She was caught with the drugs on her at the scene, and the forensic laboratory confirmed the substance was indeed charas. Importantly, she never showed any personal enmity or motive that police might have had to falsely implicate her, and she did not present any evidence or testimony to support her claim of innocence. The court also reasoned that such a large quantity of narcotics was unlikely to have been planted. As a result, her conviction and sentence were upheld, showing how courts assess credibility of police testimony and the burden on defendants to substantiate defense claims in narcotics cases.
یہ مقدمہ مسماۃ فرحین نامی ایک خاتون سے متعلق ہے جسے کوئٹہ چمن روڈ پر ایک ناکے پر پولیس نے مِنی ویگن میں سفر کرتے ہوئے روکا۔ پولیس کا کہنا تھا کہ انہیں اطلاع ملی تھی کہ دو خواتین چرس اسمگل کر رہی ہیں، جس پر انہوں نے اس کے بیگ کی تلاشی لی اور مبینہ طور پر اس میں چھپائی گئی سات کلوگرام چرس برآمد کی۔ اس پر اسے پاکستان کے کنٹرول آف نارکوٹک سبسٹینسز ایکٹ کے تحت مقدمہ درج کر کے مقدمہ چلایا گیا، اور ٹرائل کورٹ نے اسے مجرم قرار دیتے ہوئے سات سال قید اور جرمانے کی سزا سنائی۔
اس نے اس فیصلے کے خلاف اپیل دائر کی اور موقف اختیار کیا کہ اسے پولیس نے جھوٹے مقدمے میں پھنسایا ہے، اس کے خلاف گواہ آزاد اور غیر جانبدار افراد کے بجائے پولیس اہلکار تھے، اور یہ کہ ٹرائل کورٹ نے شواہد کا غلط جائزہ لیا۔
بلوچستان ہائی کورٹ نے اس کی اپیل مسترد کر دی۔ عدالت نے پایا کہ دونوں پولیس گواہ—وہ افسر جس نے برآمدگی