Karzai pardons drug lords

Karzai issued a decree in April pardoning five well-connected traffickers sentenced to between 16 and 18 years in prison after they were caught with more than 260 lbs of heroin.

One, Bilal Wali Mohammad, was the nephew of Haji Din Mohammad who is a powerful tribal leader and Mr Karzai's election campaign manager.

The other traffickers are thought to have been pardoned in secret.

Karzai was accused of not upholding the rule of law by Mehro Hameed, one of the country's most senior judges who rules on counter-narcotics cases, who said there would be no justice in Afghanistan until the president supported a judiciary under constant threat from organized crime. Some judges do a good work of catching traffickers, but when Karzai pardons them this undermines their work.

But unfortunately, Judge Mehro said the pardons were frustrating because drug kingpins were rarely arrested in the first place and most prosecutions involved lowly couriers.