PESHAWAR — A new legal battle in the Peshawar High Court highlights the tension between provincial drug laws and the protection of human rights in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) prisons.
Convicted individual Iqbal Shah filed a writ petition challenging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Narcotics Control Amendment Act 2022. The petition characterizes the law’s total ban on remissions and probation for drug-related offenses as an illegal and unconstitutional measure that targets a specific group of inmates.
The Legal Grounds of the Petition
Represented by Fawad Afzal Safi Advocate, the petitioner argues that Section 9A of the 2022 Act specifically undermines the constitutional rights of the incarcerated. The petition names the federal and provincial authorities, as well as the IG Prisons, as respondents in the case.
It asserts that withholding remissions from those convicted in narcotics cases creates an unfair and discriminatory environment. The filing emphasizes that such restrictions ignore the principles of human rights in KP prisons by denying prisoners the incentive for rehabilitation through good behavior.
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Demanding Accountability
The petitioner, who received a nine-year sentence from a Lahore trial court, insists that his conduct deserves legal recognition. He has requested the court to summon his PDR records to prove his eligibility for relief. The petition concludes with a formal request for the court to grant the rights of sentence remission and parole. The petitioner hopes to force a judicial correction of a policy he views as an affront to Article 25 of the Constitution.
