Seized drugs can be used for medicinal purposes: ANF chief tells Senate body

Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has forwarded a summary to the Ministry of Health recommending that the drugs seized during various operations should be used for medicinal purposes instead of destroying it.

Major General Muhammad Arif Malik, director general (DG) ANF told the Senate Standing Committee on Narcotics Control that there was no plan to set up a factory of hashish in Tirah, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but a summary has been forwarded to Ministry of Health Services, Regulations and Coordination to use the drugs seized by ANF during various operations for medicinal purposes like other countries instead of burning them.

The DG stated this, while replying to the query of Senator Pir Sabir Shah that is the government setting up a hashish factory in Tirah?

The drug can be used for medicinal purposes like in Iran, the DG said.

About seizer of drugs, he said that the ANF seized drugs on the basis of credible information as checking of thousands of containers as well as transport vehicles was not humanly possible.

He said that a special investigation cell (SIC) of the ANF in coordination of 32 intelligence agencies collect information about drug traffickers and drug movement. The DG ANF said that 9,000 tons of poppy cultivated in Afghanistan and 30 percent of it was being smuggled through Pakistan. Around 11 to 12 percent of the smuggled poppy was seized in Pakistan, he said.

He said that the total strength of the ANF was 2,900 and there were 29 police stations of the ANF across the country. Strict penalties should be suggested against drug traffickers as well as the strength of the ANF should be increased, he said.

AD Khawaja, secretary Narcotics Control said that different donors had stopped provision of forensic equipment to the ANF therefore; funds should be allocated to purchase required equipment. "We need to use digital technology for curbing the menace of drugs," he said.

He also informed the committee that the provincial government of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has passed law regarding narcotics control. Due to parallel legislations some traffickers have been acquitted, he said.

Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak suggested constituting a sub-committee to talk to provinces to not pass parallel legislation with respect to narcotics control. He also said that drones should be provided to the ANF for surveillance of various areas. Senator Abdul Qayyum told the committee that over 6.7 percent population in the country used drugs, of which 22 percent were women.

He said that the drug addiction in Pakistan was increasing day by day as there was an increase of 40,000 drug addicts every year. He said that the main source of drugs was Afghanistan as 85 percent of the total drugs in the world were produced in Afghanistan.

Senator Seemee said that students and teachers of some private well-reputed English medium schools were using drugs therefore department concerned needed to take notice.

Pir Sabir Shah also said that some educational institutes were promoting vulgarity and drug addiction in the name of quality education. He said that medical test of students in the educational institutes should be made mandatory. The meeting was presided over by Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen and also attended by Rana Maqbool Ahmed, Saleem Zia and senior officials of the ANF and the Ministry of Narcotics Control.