Children of a number of parliamentarians living in the Parliament Lodges are drug addicts and departments concerned should take action in order to curb the menace. Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Narcotics Control, Salahuddin Ayubi revealed Friday that children of many parliamentarians were drug addicts and as per State Minister for Interior Shehryar Afridi, 75 percent of girl students and 45 percent of male students, including those studying in well-known educational institutions in the federal capital, had been found to be taking drugs. He questioned what steps Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had taken following the statement of the state minister for interior.
Director ANF Brigadier Saghir Kamran said he did not agree to the data quoted by the State Minister for Interior but after Afridi's statement, ANF has conducted a fresh survey and as per ANF survey, 1.86 percent students were drug addicts in the educational institutions of the federal capital.
Kamran said ANF had launched crackdown against those who were providing drugs in the education institutions. "So far we have arrested 277 drug peddlers and recovered 60kg of different kinds of drugs," he added.
MNA Muhammad Iqbal Khan said there was a dire need to take action against drug factories; otherwise, it was impossible to eradicate it. "The ANF needs to take action against drug sources," he said.
The Director ANF said, "Our main problem is our neighbouring country Afghanistan as it produces 90 percent of the world cannabis and hashish. As many as 30 to 35 percent of Afghanistan drugs are smuggled through Pakistan," he said.
He said total strength of ANF was 2,800 for the whole country. The total strength of ANF should be increased up to 10,000, he suggested.
The joint secretary, Ministry of Narcotics Control, briefed the committee regarding the budgetary proposals of Rs 1.37 billion relating to Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the financial year 2019-20 which the committee approved. Out of total 14 PSDP projects, three were ongoing projects, nine were new and two were unapproved projects, he said.