Rehabilitation of drug addicts: KP to establish 150-bed hospital

The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will establish a modern 150 bed hospital at Peshawar for medical treatment and rehabilitation of drug-addicted persons. The Provincial Government will provide the abundant building of Commerce College at Ring Road for the hospital which will be set up in collaboration with Anti Narcotics Force (ANF).
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak decided this while presiding over a meeting at CM Secretariat here today. The Commander ANF Brigadier Habibur Rehman, Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Social Welfare Mahr Taj Roghani and concerned officers attended the meeting.
Apprising the CM of the initiatives being taken by ANF for rehabilitation of the drug addicts the Commander ANF told that such hospitals were being already run very successfully in other major cities of the country, and they are producing very fruitful and desired results. He said that the proposed hospital would be run by an independent Board of Governors adding that the facility could be made operational by September next if the required building is provided by the provincial government.
Describing the use of narcotics as a serious threat to the society especially the budding youth, the Chief Minister vowed that his government would extend every possible help and co-operation for the rehabilitation of drug addicts to make them normal citizen of the society. He assured that the required financial resources for the hospital would also be provided by the Provincial Government and this project would be properly incorporated in Annual Development Program for the next fiscal year.
He ordered the authorities concerned to take all necessary measures on war footing for early completion of the project. However, on this occasion Khattak was annoyed by the information about unprecedented delay in completion of two other rehabilitation centers of Social Welfare Department which were in the pipeline since last nine months. He directed the department to immediately remove all the bottlenecks in smooth execution of the projects and advised to keep close liaison with ANF in all activities and initiatives aimed at medical or Psycho treatment and rehabilitation of drugs addicts.