LAHORE, June 26: Minister of State for Railways Ishaq Khan Khakwani says the drug mafia operating in his constituency is more powerful than him. “All the government functionaries are aware of the activities of the drug barons, but hardly dare to interfere,” the minister said at a seminar held in connection with the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at a hotel on the Mall on Sunday.

“Three or four villages in my Vehari constituency are under the control of drug mafia and the organized crime is on the rise there. We cannot stop them as the mafia is more influential than I am,” Mr Khakwani said while turning towards the Punjab Commander, Brig Ashfaqur Rasheed, of the Anti-Narcotics Force.

He said if there were laws against drug abuse and trafficking, these were not being enforced in letter and spirit. “The laws should have no lacunas so that no violator could escape.”

In order to effectively check the menace, no government functionary should be involved or linked with drug trade. “No one in the present government is either involved or linked with the drug trade as against some past regimes,” the minister said while suggesting there should be a mechanism to check the circulation of drug money and anonymous transactions.

The government agencies had been working to combat the drug menace but the state cannot watch every house, Mr Khakwani said, and urged the parents to have a friendly relationship with their children.

“Parents should carefully watch the activities of their children, especially during their impressionable age,” he advised.

He said once an opium state, China had now become one of world’s leading economies because of determination of its people. “We, too, require a will to get rid of drugs,” the minister said.

ANF’s Punjab Commander, Brig Ashfaqur Rasheed, said drug laws in the country were perhaps the strictest in the world. “We do not depend on the government prosecutors and some 60 people have been handed down death for trading in drug, 152 sentenced to life imprisonment while 900 others got various severe punishments since 1997.”

Assets of people in drug trade, worth of Rs16,00 million, had been frozen.

He, however, said the laws required further strict implementation. The Customs, police and excise and taxation departments should have more focus on the menace.

Brig Ashfaq said there were insufficient facilities for drug addicts’ treatment in the province.

“Half of the 40 or so treatment facilities in the Punjab are substandard. Most of the remaining are in the private sector and are in Lahore. Some 17 districts in the Punjab do not have treatment facilities for drug addicts while the service is not available at the tehsil level either.

“It is basically the subject of the provincial health department and it seems that the people concerned are not taking responsibility,” the Punjab ANF chief said.

The police, he said, could also play an effective role in curbing drug peddling in the streets but the force was being used for tasks like guard duty and VIP security.

Brig Ashfaq said the use of psycho-tropic drugs (PTDs) was on the rise compared to heroin because of the easy availability of the former. More than 50 per cent of the heroin addicts had switched to PTDs during the last five years or so.

The phenomenon required immediate attention as the PTDs were more deadly and there were no laws to check their sale or trade.

He proposed that restricted medicines’ sale system should be improved and introduction of double prescription system could help a lot in this regard.

“Cocaine, which is 100 times more costlier than heroin, is now coming from the west,” he said.

Ammna Nasir Jamal, Florida-based physician Dr Tariq Shoaib Ismaeel, doctors Nabiya Mughal and Hafiza Shazia, Masahib Khan Jadoon, Fareeha Sheikh and Punjab AIDS Control Programme project director Dr Ali Razzaq also spoke at the seminar organized by the Movement Against Drug Abuse.

WALK People from all walks of life participated in a walk held in connection with the anti-drug abuse day.

It was organized by the Punjab Anti-Narcotics Force in collaboration with the provincial excise and taxation department and several non-government organizations.