Torched: ANF burns 51 tonnes of narcotics

State minister calls for concerted national, international efforts to combat drugs

RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Thursday set 51.577 metric tons of narcotics ablaze in Rawalpindi even as a junior minister said that the government needs to do more to tackle drugs.

“We must do more to protect our loved ones from drugs and all of us have a part to play in this effort,” said the State Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Balighur Rehman at the contraband burning ceremony.

Rehman said that the country had been facing internal and external threats, which forced the government to launch a country-wide operation, Zarb-e-Azb. In this regard, he said drug adversely affected the society.

Conceding that Pakistan had a big drug problem, Rehman said that it warranted concerted efforts from the government and civil society through a multi-pronged and well integrated strategy. He urged national and international communities to play their role in eliminating the use of drugs in the society. He added that Pakistan had signed agreements with 32countries on this subject.

Cesar Guedes, the country head of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that their annual drug report, released in June, had also highlighted the enormity of the drug problem in the region. He added that the fallout from drugs impacted not only on Pakistan but also the world at large.

“Pakistan has been a poppy-free country since 2002 but the region still produces over 90 per cent of the world’s opiates that puts Pakistan in double jeopardy of being a victim as well as a transit country,” Guedes said.

Briefing about the measures taken by the ANF, the force’s director general Major General Nasir Dilawar Shah said that approximately 51.577 metric tons worth $152 million of narcotics had been burnt.

He added that so far in 2016, the ANF had seized a total of 298 metric tonnes drugs worth $896 million.

Maj Gen Dilawar further said that the ANF had prosecuted 424 people, of which 382 had been convicted with four death penalties and 81 life imprisonments awarded.

He added that the force had deployed body-scanners at major airports to apprehend traffickers. In this regard, he said that the force had also obtained 44 new sniffer dogs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2016.