The Senate Standing Committee on Narcotics Control on Wednesday discussed the Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Act in detail and said that further consideration was needed on it. The committee which held here under the chairmanship of Senator Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry considered in detail the Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Act, 1997, introduced in the Senate by Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed. Under current law, a court can sentence a citizen to three years in prison if he or she makes a false accusation against a citizen based on fabricated evidence. According to the amendment, the sentence of three years will be increased to ten years. Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed said that by increasing the sentence, it would be possible to redress the false cases. It will also be possible to discourage those who imprison innocent people based on false and fabricated evidence. The secretary of the Narcotics Control Ministry said that increasing the sentence would not make any difference. Under current law, no one has been convicted till date. We must improve the current system in such a way that the real culprits do not escape and whoever fabricates a false case will definitely be punished. Certainty of the Punishment is a better deterrent then Severity of the punishment, he said.
The ministry officials also expressed concern that if the sentence was increased to ten years, law enforcement officials would be reluctant to crack down on drug Offenders/Dealers. The Chairman of the committee said that the bill needs further consideration and while taking the opinion of the members, he decided to send the proposed amendment bill to the Islamic Ideology Council so that the position of the Ulema could also be taken on the proposed amendment. The chairman of the committee sought response from the ministry officials on the status of implementation of the recommendations and decisions made by the committee in its previous meetings. The ministry officials briefed the committee members on the current situation on all recommendations.
