PESHAWAR, Jan 1: Despite tight administrative measures adopted by the government to eradicate the menace of drugs, poppy crop has been grown on 700 acres in the upper NWFP and the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), official sources said.
A senior functionary of the Home Department told Dawn that a team had recently prepared a survey report on the poppy growing areas in the NWFP and the tribal agencies, along the border with Afghanistan.
The team, according to the official, had detected in the first phase of the survey that the banned crop had been grown over 700 acres in the high altitude areas of the NWFP and Fata. He said that the anti-poppy campaign was underway in specific areas to eradicate the opium-producing crop as the growers didn't put up any resistance to the drive so far.
"The final survey would be conducted when the crop is in full bloom", the official revealed, saying that administrative action would be taken to eliminate poppy cultivation from the target areas.
The official claimed that after the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the poppy cultivation and the opium production registered a sharp increase. It had come down to zero level in Pakistan, he added.
The official said at present there were about 1.5 million addicts, including 500,000 heroin addicts, in Pakistan. These addicts were between 20 to 45 years of age, he said.
The report, however, declared four tribal agencies, Kurram, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan as poppy free areas this year. The tribal farmers had grown poppy over vast areas in the four agencies last year. The survey revealed that the internationally prohibited plant had been grown over an estimated 500 areas in the Khyber Agency, while the crop was cultivated over 200 acres in remote parts of the NWFP.
The team, comprising officials of the Home Department, Narcotics Affairs Section, Governors's Fata Secretariat, Anti Narcotics Force, United Nations Drug Control Programme and Special Development Unit will kick off second phase of the ground survey in a couple of days.
The official sources said that in the final phase, the team would conduct aerial survey of those pockets in the remote areas where physical survey could not be conducted. They said the Narcotics Affairs Section, the US drug control agency, might make satellite photos of the poppy growing areas.
