ISLAMABAD: Following a recent scare over alleged drug use among students in the federal capital, a ruling party lawmaker is looking to introduce a law seeking mandatory drug tests for college and university students.

But while the move has been welcomed among academic circles, many stakeholders have pointed out that the draft law lacks safeguards and has a number of loopholes that need to be plugged.

The one-page bill, titled the ‘Compulsory Drug Test of Students Act 2017’, will be placed before the National Assembly at the next private members’ day by PML-N lawmaker Asiya Naz Tanoli.

The draft bill’s statement of objects and reasons explains the impetus behind the legislation: “There are reports that students of universities and colleges are using drugs and this trend is increasingly day by day, therefore, we need to control this trend.”

One-page bill seeking compulsory drug tests of college, university students is ‘missing basic safeguards’

But, as educationists point out, the bill has several missing links. For instance, there is no provision for the privacy of test results, the financial cost of the tests, an enforcement mechanism defining who will conduct the tests, nor is there any mention of rehabilitation programmes for juvenile drug abusers.

The law also applies only to institutions that offer intermediate-level courses and above, and makes no distinction between private and public institutions.

It defines drug tests as “a test which can identify use of recreational drugs such as stimulants, opiates and opioids, hallucinogens, amphetamines and inhalants etc and seeks to mandate compulsory drug tests in colleges and universities on an annual basis.

Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, who teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, told Dawn that though reports of drug use at educational institutions are highly exaggerated, no one could deny that students do experiment with drugs.

“Making legislation to conduct drug tests of students is a positive step, but there is a greater need to focus on the root cause and to examine the social and political realities that force students down this path,” he said.

He was of the opinion that the proposed law should provide legal cover to students that tested positive, so that their identity was protected and they were not stigmatised by society.

Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) member Imtiaz Qureshi said that in January this year, a group of parents also filed a complaint in this regard. “We have already written to all private schools to take steps in this regard,” he said.

Tahir Malik, who teaches at National University of Modern Languages (NUML), called for expanding the scope of the proposed legislation.

“Most students in our universities don’t even know what their blood group is. If the government is going to introduce mandatory drug tests, it should also check students for other diseases as well,” he said.

He also suggested that a proper rehabilitation programme be developed for students who did test positive for drug use.

“We will support all positive initiatives to stop drug use in educational institutions,” Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed told Dawn, calling the bill “a good initiative”. He said the commission was also taking various steps to sensitize both teachers and students on this issue.

The issue surfaced last year, when a report claiming widespread drug use among students caused a stir among academic circles. The unease spilled over into parliament, when Ms Tanoli and others moved a calling attention notice on the matter in November last year.

But Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, the minister responsible for the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), had told the house that no cases of drug use among students had been reported in the capital.

The report, compiled by the South Asia Strategic Stability Institute (Sassi), had claimed that over half the students at “elite private institutions” were drug addicts.

Refuting these claims, Mr Chaudhry had said at the time that monitoring teams had been formed to check any illicit activity in the schools and colleges in Islamabad, and said he had sought a clarification from Sassi regarding their claims.

The matter also remained a hotly-debated topic at the standing committee-level. Senator Talha Mehmood, who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, was among those who expressed alarm over the reports.

Similarly, Senator Rehman Malik, who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, also raised this issue several times in meetings and stressed the need for remedial measures to check the trend.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017