The case came up from the Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi Bench judgment of 11.10.2023. Mudassar Ali Khan stood convicted under section 9(c) of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act with life imprisonment; co-accused Zamanullah Khan and Rehman Said were convicted alongside him. In Crl.P.L.A.1385/2023 and the connected Jail Petition No.620/2023, all three reached the Supreme Court.
On 17.08.2026, the Supreme Court — Mr. Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim authoring, with Mr. Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar and Mr. Justice Salahuddin Panhwar — split the outcome. For Mudassar Ali Khan, the conviction under section 9(c) was maintained, but the sentence was reduced from life imprisonment to 14 years rigorous imprisonment (fine and default period maintained, with the benefit of section 382-B Cr.P.C.). For Zamanullah Khan and Rehman Said, the Jail Petition was allowed outright: acquitted on benefit of doubt, ordered released.
The reasoning shows the Court's calibrated approach to narcotics cases. The recovery from Mudassar — 9,600 grams, just below the 10-kg threshold — sustained the conviction, but prolonged incarceration since 20.03.2020 invited what the Court called a reformatory and pragmatic approach to the sentence. The recoveries from the co-accused, by contrast, were held improbable — and an improbable recovery cannot support a conviction.
Two doctrines, one judgment: proportionality in sentencing even where guilt is proved, and the benefit of doubt where proof falters. Saza jurm ke mutabiq, shak ka faida mulzim ko — the Court applied both in the same sitting, reducing one man's years and returning two men their freedom.