Daily Times

The increasing trend of drugs in Pakistan is destroying the young generation. According to the Narcotics Control Division of Pakistan Bureau of Static and the UN, 7.6 million people are drug addicts out of which 78 percent are men and 22 percent are women.

According to my research, 2588 cases were registered in 2017, 6064 cases in 2018 and 5404 cases in 2019, in Lahore. I received this data from Punjab Police. According to the statistics, 10 to 15 cases are registered on daily basis.

There are some laws in Pakistan related to drug smuggling. 9b case is filed if the amount/quantity of drugs is less than 1000 grams. If the quantity is from 1 to 100 grams, then 9a case is filed. If the quantity is greater than 1000 grams then 9c NSA case is filed. If the incident accompanies the red-handed capture of alcohol with it, then ¾ case is filed.

In order to stop drug dealing and smuggling government of Pakistan has a separate unit dedicated to this particular task known as NI unit. It is a special police force that works against drug dealing and smuggling and does its best to stop this ring. The process under which this unit work is simple, these drug dealers or smugglers are caught and case is filed against them. Also, there are special cells in jail for these people. After filing a case they were transferred to jail and their parents were called. After that steps to caught their associates begin.

The government has specially formed this Narcotics Investigation Unit so the disease like this should be removed from the root. You can conclude the seriousness of this issue from this that punishment for people below age 18 is the same for people above it.

These laws and regulations are the same for all religions. But if you’re a non-Muslim and wanted to do drugs you’ve to get a permit for it and it is allowed for a specific quantity also you can’t get a permit for all kinds of drugs. When I say drugs for non-muslim I was referring to Alcohol. If you’re a non-Muslim and got no permit with you, you’ll be charged according to the law.

What happens to all the drugs being confiscated? These are deposited in special cells and after a certain period of time, they were destroyed more probably burnt.

Mr. Saqib Butt (CCPO, PSP) while sharing one of its stories said a few days backs an informant told me about the drug cycle where a person buys the drug from an unknown location and sold it to someone else. On raid one specific car was stopped by police, on searching nearly 17kg of chars is found and that person is arrested immediately and further investigation started against him. Mr. Saqib also mentioned Haji Iqbal who was a well-known smuggler of his time.

Zafar Abbas Naqvi (DSP Narcotics, Head of NIU Lahore) told us during an interview that most of the drugs are smuggled through Afghanistan. Because the Pakistan and Afghanistan border is quite vast which makes it pretty easy to smuggle the drug into Pakistan. From Pakistan drug is smuggled to other countries through planes, ships and by road.

On asking that how do they that which car or person is carrying drug he said we don’t need to tap calls, there is always a person inside the group that let us know about the movement you could also say, informant. We take action based on the information provided by these informants.

They also told us that their department doesn’t have a high budget so they could make arrests in other cities. Anti-narcotics department comes under the army and for the army to travel to another city is no issue all they have to do is make a call.

We are trying our best, I have been appointed here not very long time ago and so far I have done a lot against drug smuggling and dealing.

According to Mr. Zafar Abbas government should allot more budget to their department so they can work without any hurdle and do their best to eradicate evil like a drug.

The writer is a student of mass-communication at UMT, Lahore