ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government has formed a working group to thoroughly examine all issues linked with drug use among students of educational institutions in Lahore, the Supreme Court was informed on Friday.

According to a report submitted to the Supreme Court by additional Advocate General for Punjab Chaudhry Faisal Hussain on behalf of the secretary of school education, Punjab, the working group would finalise its recommendations and submit them to the Punjab chief secretary by Saturday.

A high-level committee, headed by Chief Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, will meet on Monday (Jan 7) to thoroughly examine recommendations of the working group to finalise the strategy and the plan of action on the subject.

The decision to form the working group was taken by a committee, headed by the chief secretary.

Other members of the panel included the provincial minister for school education, secretary of school education, secretary of excise, taxation and narcotics control division, secretary of higher education department, additional inspector general of police (special branch), Punjab, and director of monitoring and evaluation of provincial higher education commission, Lahore.

The report submitted to the Supreme Court quotes the chief secretary as telling the meeting that drug-related tendencies were on the rise among students in educational institutions. He underlined the importance of joint efforts from various departments to combat the challenge in a befitting manner.

The minister for school education department informed the meeting that drug tendencies were predominantly rampant among students of private schools and proposed random blood testing of students.

The Punjab chief secretary, however, noted that opinion from the law ministry should be sought before proceeding with the idea.

The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice of supply of narcotics to children in educational institutions of Lahore. During Friday’s hearing, the police informed the court that 466 drug sellers had been arrested from the vicinity of schools.

During the proceedings, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said the purpose of the hearing was to save future generations and asked what steps the government had taken to tackle the issue.

Noting that the PTI had governments in three provinces, he asked in how many meetings the Punjab government had discussed the issue.

When the advocate general for Punjab said that the chief secretary of the province was holding meetings on the issue in educational institutions, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan observed that meetings could not resolve the issue and called for preparation of an action plan and implementation of it.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019