Drug Court concerned over crowded rehabs

Drug Court has expressed concern over the full capacity under which the two main rehabilitation centres in the country currently operate.

Speaking at the 2013 annual assembly of the Drug Court, Judge Mahaz Ali Zahir, the court’s acting chief said that cramped rehabs will hinder the court’s ability to provide solutions for the country's drug issue.

“Drug Court is a court that rehabilitates individuals, without sending them to jail. But if the avenues to bring these individuals back to society are narrowed, the court’s options will also reduce,” Judge Mahaz Ali Zahir said.

A large number of individuals sentenced to rehabilitation reside in the jails due to lack of space in the rehabilitation centres, he said.

“A number of people sentenced to rehabilitation under Article 69 of the Drugs Act are waiting in the jails for their opportunity for treatment. If this persists, the court cannot produce adequate results,” the Judge said.

He said that the Drug Court, establish under the 2011 Drugs Act, has had several achievements in the past few years, including the assembly of a regulation on conducting hearings through video conferencing.

“The most important achievement in 2013 was to put together objectives of the Drug Court from 2014 to 2018. A Drug Court strategic action plan has been assembled. God willing, the actions plan has been inaugurated and is being implemented,” Judge Mahaz Ali Zahir said.

The court has recently established a mechanism with the police to communicate details of individuals accused or sentenced on drug related offences, along with a new case management system to monitor its cases.

“I am pleased that we can view, within seconds, the records of individuals brought before the judges and of the individuals under police custody,” Judge Mahaz Ali Zahir said.

“A case management system has been developed, and today we can easily print court orders. Now we can print and dispatch court orders within 30 seconds, a process which took us 2 minutes,” Judge Mahaz Ali Zahir said.