1999 PLP 1953 (YLR)

This bail application has been moved on behalf of petitioner Izzat Khan accused in case F.I.R. No.632, dated 3-10-1998 under Article 3/4 of Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order, 1979 read with section 9/14 of Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 of Police Station Abbottabad Cantt.

2. On 3-10-1998 at 14-15 hours, Sadiq Hussain Inspector, C.I.A. alongwith other staff, during routine Gasht duty on Chinar Road, noticed the petitioner in suspicious condition. Upon personal search of the petitioner, Charas weighing 1500 grams was recovered from the folder (Badd) of his 'Shalwar'. He was arrested and accordingly booked under the aforesaid provisions of law.

3. Mr. Muhammad Ayub Tanoli, Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner did not touch the merits of the case. The learned counsel, challenging the authority of Sadiq Hussain Inspector, urged for the bail of the petitioner on the ground that Inspector, C.I.A. was not a competent person to cause arrest and investigate the case. Alluding to Order No.679, dated 11-10-1997 issued by the S.S.P., Mr. Ghulam Younas, Advocate, appearing for the State, maintained that the C.I.A. Staff has been duly authorised to investigate the cases entrusted to them.

4. It is only an Officer-in-Charge of a police station or his delegatee who, under section 156(1), Cr.P.C., has the power to investigate a cognizable case. Sadiq Hussain, Inspector who has investigated the instant case, is admittedly neither an Officer-in -Charge of police station nor has been invested with such powers. The order passed by the S.S.P., referred to by the learned State Counsel, does not fulfil the requirement of law as the S. S. P. is neither himself authorised under the law to investigate the case nor has the power to authorise any subordinate officer to do so and thus such order cannot bypass the law on the subject. This issue has been thrashed out once for all by the August Supreme Court of Pakistan in case 'State v. Bashir' (PLD 1997 SC 408). The same issue also stands decided by this Court in its reported judgment in Criminal Miscellaneous No.381 of 1998 'Dilshad Bibi v. State', decided on 18-12-1998. If the Government wished so, the staff of C.I.A. could lave been invested with powers of Officer-in-Charge of a police station as it did in the case of staff of Anti-Narcotics Force, Customs Staff, Excise, Revenue Department and Frontier Corps in Baluchistan and N.-W.F.P. vide Notification No. 600(1)/97, dated 7-7-1997.

5. In view of the illegality in the investigation of the case, I hold that the petitioner has been able to make out a prima facie case in his favour, therefore, I allow bail to him on furnishing bail bond in the sum of Rs.1,00,000 (one lac) with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of Additional Registrar of this Court who shall see that the sureties are local, reliable and have immovable property in their names, the value whereof is equivalent to or more than the amount of the bond N.H.Q./420/P Bail allowed.