The World Drug Report has stated that Pakistan is the main transit country for narcotics, heroin and opium in particular, produced in the neighbouring Afghanistan. According to a United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) estimate, approximately 43 percent of the Afghan drugs are trafficked through Pakistan. The family of narcotics to which heroin, morphine and other oft-abused substances such as codeine belongs is known as opiates. Heroin is processed in a way that allows faster absorption into the system, making it a more potent form of morphine, but both are refined from opium, a naturally occurring product of the opium poppy plant.
Afghanistan is at the centre of the global trade in illicit drugs, with more than 90 percent of the world supply originating there. Within Afghanistan, the cultivation of poppy is concentrated in the south and west of the country, with Helmand province alone accounting for more than half of Afghanistan’s total production. As Afghanistan’s importance in the global opiate trade has grown, the trafficking routes out of the country have become increasingly valuable. The trafficking of opiates out of Afghanistan to the outside consumer markets is a highly lucrative business: the annual global market for illicit opiate drugs is estimated at $65 billion. The UN estimated that in 2009 the opium trade accounted for $2.3 billion of the Afghan economy, or about 19 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP. Afghan opiates are trafficked all over the world, but the most important end markets are Russia, Europe, and Iran.
Pakistan is stated to be the main exit point for opiates leaving Afghanistan. The long border between the two countries is virtually impossible to control, and smuggling across the borders is very common especially for Taliban forces. Opiate production and smuggling through Pakistan have been essential support for the Afghan Taliban. Drugs travel from southern Afghanistan across the border to the city of Quetta, which is an important transit point for Afghan opiates. Another important route is south through the Indus valley towards Karachi. Karachi is an important organised crime hub, and drugs can be moved all over the world once they leave the port. Shipments of drugs are hidden in cargo containers, or smuggled aboard commercial airliners. The UNODC estimates the export value of opium trade at about four billion dollars, with a quarter of that being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers.
Pakistan and Afghanistan enjoy a history that is based on give and take policy. For decades, both states have used each other’s resources for their respective advantages. Drug trafficking is one of those underhand deals that have been in vogue and going on for years between both states. For Afghanistan there is no other alternative as a large proportion of its economy depends on the cultivation and trade of opiates. Unless alternative sources of income generation are provided to local Afghans, there is little hope that poppy cultivation will be abandoned in a resource-hungry state like Afghanistan. Already Afghanistan is passing through a critical phase and sustaining on a poor economy. It is very difficult for the Afghan people to rely on honest means for earning their bread and butter, and even honest Afghans are tempted to become a part of this illegal trade due to poverty. It is the responsibility of the stakeholder states to play their respective role in bringing peace in Afghanistan and take steps to better the Afghan economy by creating job opportunities and setting up large business concerns. Effective international cooperation is required to deal with the menace of drug trafficking out of Afghanistan.
And one of the foremost steps would be the blockage of all routes in Pakistan via which these drugs travel to the rest of the world. Pakistan should act as a responsible neighbour and friend, not as an opportunist entity that would turn a blind eye to smuggling of globally banned items through its borders and ports merely for some financial gains, and for the purpose of keeping its imaginary hegemony over Afghanistan. *