PESHAWAR, June 25: Dr Zakir Shah, an MPA of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), has pledged to wage a war against the menace of heroin in society by providing treatment to and rehabilitation facilities for the addicts.

“The NWFP has a large number of addicts, but the government would spare no effort to cope with the situation, which has assumed alarming proportions,” the MPA said.

The sad aspect of the episode was that a majority of these addicts belonged to young age group which rendered them as useless citizens, he said in his speech to mark “Anti-drug world day” here on Wednesday.

He said in the past the problem of drug addiction had been ignored, which affected the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan alike. Dr Zakir Shah said the production of heroin both in Pakistan and Afghanistan had caused alarm in the entire region.

Mr Shah said the MMA-led government in the NWFP had launched a drug control programme, despite its meagre resources and expressed hope that the people would feel a marked change in terms of reduction in number of heroin addicts.

He said the government was aware of the growing trend among the youth falling to heroin and urged the people to help the government in ending the menace. Only through the cooperation of the public, the supply of the stuff could be stopped, because the government alone could not do anything to solve the problem.

The MPA was of the view that the government had planned to involve the Pesh Imams in order to educate the masses about the affects of drug addiction.

Dr Zakir called upon all sections of society including doctors, nurses, volunteers student to join hands and work collectively against the drug addiction, which has already posed a serious threat to the very foundation of society. He said unless all sections of society could not realize the gravity of situation it would be impossible for the government create social awareness against drug addiction.

He said the growing use of heroin was increasing the number of AIDS, hepatitis B and C at street level. According to him only one per cent of GDP was spent through regular budget for health problems and conceded that there had been some control in drug demand reduction.

Some of the  NGOs had tried their level best to create awareness and rehabilitate the drug addicts, he said. He said there was no drug policy at the federal and provincial level, because there had never been any  sincere efforts to involve a group of experts and public representatives to cope with the situation.