May 30, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17,1423

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HARIPUR, May 29: District Nazim Dr Raja Amir Zaman has stressed the need for unified efforts to get rid of the drug menace, and asked people to identify narcotics pushers and sellers.

He was speaking on Wednesday at a function held in the honour of a first year intermediate student, Owais Malik, who stood first in the all Pakistan essay writing contest on ‘The Menace of Narcotics’. Notables, councillors, Nazimeen and other people of the area attended the function.

He said the narcotics, use of which had reached its alarming volume with a great number of addicts in Pakistan, not only took toll on the human lives, but also robbed the country of its fame world over and finances.

Dr Zaman, seeking help from the society for overcoming the problem, said that unless the people of an affected area pinpointed the drug pushers and sellers, the narcotics could not be eliminated from the society.

“ If the police are responsible for slackness in this regard, we must equally be questioned for our criminal silence and non-cooperation with the law enforcing agencies,” he added.

The Nazim described drug use as the basic cause of joblessness, which resultantly nurtured sense of deprivation and inferiority among the educated youths. He called upon the provincial government for lifting ban on the recruitment, as, according to him, in Haripur District alone a number of posts in different categories were lying vacant.

The Nazim stated that if the government gave a go-ahead, the district government would take on a large number of unemployed youths.

About  rehabilitation of the drug addicts, he said the anti-narcotics organization was already functioning in the district and it had treated over 80 drug patients, the district government would soon set up a separate ward for the drug addicts in the DHQ Haripur.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, a senior lawyer and member of NWFP bar, Advocate Saeed Akhtar Khan, criticized the performance of the police and termed it totally unsatisfactory particularly in curbing the menace of drug smuggling.