IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
 
 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa 
Mr. Justice Maqbool Baqar 
Mr. Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel 
 
 
 
Criminal Appeal No. 429 of 2017 
(Against the judgment dated 15.03.2016 passed by the High Court 
of Sindh at Karachi in Criminal Acquittal Appeal No. 30 of 2014) 
 
 
 
State 
through 
the 
Director, 
Directorate-General 
of 
Intelligence & Investigation, (Customs & Excise), Karachi 
…Appellant 
 
 
 
 
 
versus 
 
Haji Nabi Bux, etc. 
 
 
 
  
…Respondents 
 
 
For the appellant: 
Dr. Farhat Zafar, ASC 
 
Raja Abdul Ghafoor, AOR 
 
For respondent No. 1: 
Mr. Farhat Nawaz Lodhi, ASC  
 
On Court’s Notice: 
Syed 
Nayyab 
Hussain 
Gardezi, 
Deputy 
Attorney-General 
for 
Pakistan  
 
 
Date of hearing: 
 
 
26.09.2018 
 
JUDGMENT  
 
Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, J.: 
 
Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 1559 of 2018 
 
 
This miscellaneous application is allowed and the documents 
appended therewith are permitted to be brought on the record of 
the main appeal. Disposed of.  
Criminal Appeal No. 429 of 2017 
 
2 
Criminal Appeal No. 429 of 2017 
 
2. 
Haji Nabi Bux and Abdullah respondents were booked in 
case FIR No. C.No.M1564/DCI/Seiz/2011 registered at the 
Directorate-General of Intelligence & Investigation, FBR, Regional 
Office, Karachi on 15.09.2011 and after a regular trial conducted 
by the learned Judge, Special Court-II (CNS), Karachi they were 
acquitted of the charge vide judgment dated 28.08.2013. The 
acquittal of the respondents was challenged before the High Court 
of Sindh at Karachi by the State through the Director, Directorate-
General of Intelligence & Investigation (Customs & Excise), Karachi 
through Criminal Acquittal Appeal No. 30 of 2014 but the said 
appeal was dismissed by a learned Division Bench of the said 
Court through the impugned judgment passed by it on 
15.03.2016. Hence, the present appeal by leave of this Court 
granted on 02.10.2017.  
 
3. 
We have heard the learned counsel for the parties at some 
length and have gone through the relevant record of the case with 
their assistance.  
 
4. 
The appeal filed by the appellant before the High Court had 
been dismissed on the ground that the same was not maintainable 
and for holding so the High Court had referred to the provisions of 
the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, the Customs Act, 
1969 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. We have found 
that all the references in the impugned judgment to the provisions 
of the Customs Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure vis-à-vis 
the right of appeal and the process of filing an appeal were not 
strictly relevant to the controversy pertaining to maintainability of 
the appeal in the present case and all the precedent cases arising 
out of the said two enactments were also hardly relevant because a 
right of appeal in a case of recovery of narcotic substance is 
squarely governed by the provisions of section 48 of the Control of 
Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. Section 48 of the said Act caters 
for all kinds of challenges made to a judgment or order of a trial 
Criminal Appeal No. 429 of 2017 
 
3 
court through an appeal and unlike its counterparts in the 
Customs Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure no restriction 
has been placed therein as to which person or authority can file an 
appeal and this had been so clarified by this Court in the case of 
The State through Mehmood Ahmad Butt, Deputy Director, Regional 
Directorate, Anti-Narcotics Force, Lahore v. Mst. Fazeelat Bibi (PLD 
2013 SC 361). It is not denied that the criminal case in hand was a 
State case, the State had prosecuted the respondents before the 
trial court and it was none other than the State itself which had 
filed an appeal before the High Court against acquittal of the 
respondents recorded by the trial court. Apart from that the FIR 
had been lodged in this case by the office of the Directorate-
General of Intelligence & Investigation, FBR, Karachi which was 
the complainant in the case and the appeal filed by the State 
before the High Court was through such complainant. We find that 
the provisions of section 48 of the Control of Narcotic Substances 
Act, 1997 place no restriction on the State or the complainant vis-
à-vis filing of an appeal before the High Court and this aspect of 
the matter had been clarified by this Court in the case of State 
through Director General, Anti-Narcotics Force v. Abdul Jabar alias 
Jubbara (2017 SCMR 1213). After going through the impugned 
judgment passed by the High Court we have found that it was 
totally unnecessary for the High Court to consider the provisions of 
the Customs Act or the Code of Criminal Procedure when the 
provisions of section 48 of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 
1997 were very clear and were the only provisions governing the 
subject of appeal in such a case. The High Court would have done 
better by seeking guidance in that regard from the above 
mentioned judgments passed by this Court on the subject.  
 
5. 
For what has been discussed above this appeal is allowed, 
the impugned judgment passed by the High Court of Sindh at 
Karachi on 15.03.2016 is set aside and the matter is remanded to 
the High Court with a direction to entertain the appellant’s appeal 
filed before it as having have been competently filed which appeal 
shall now be decided by the High Court on its merits. The bail 
Criminal Appeal No. 429 of 2017 
 
4 
bonds and sureties of the respondents, if any, shall stand 
discharged as far as this Court is concerned. 
  
  
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
Islamabad 
26.09.2018 
Approved for reporting. 
  
Arif