Community outreach: Govt promises drug rehabilitation centre

CM underscores urgent need for such a facility.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government will establish a drug rehabilitation centre for the treatment and reformation of drug addicts in the province.

The decision was made during a meeting held under the chair of Home and Tribal Affairs Secretary Syed Akhtar Ali Shah at the Civil Secretariat in Peshawar on Tuesday. According to a press release issued by the K-P Home and Tribal Affairs Department, officials of the health department, social welfare department, local government department, excise and taxation department, Peshawar commissioner, CCPO Peshawar and Anti-Narcotics Force were present at the meeting.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak issued instructions to establish the rehabilitation centre on an emergency basis to ameliorate the drug problem prevalent in local communities. Drug addicts will be treated in the centre to help them become better, more integrated citizens within the society.

One key suggestion put forward during the meeting was to impart technical skills and vocational training to drug addicts so that they will have the opportunity to earn an honest living and live a more respectable life. This suggestion addresses the need to clean up the streets of impoverished addicts who spend their days begging and using drugs in public places.

According to the meeting’s projected goals, a building for the permanent rehab centre will be selected in Peshawar within the next two days. The selected building for establishing the proposed rehab centre in the province will be acquired by the provincial government.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2015.