ISLAMABAD, July 6: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Wednesday that the Narcotics Control Division had no proper way to dispose of seized heroin other than burning it out in the open. The officials of the Narcotics Control Division (NCD) during appropriation of accounts before the PAC said no place had been fixed for burning of drugs, as there was no incinerator for the purpose. The committee member, Kunwar Khalid Younus, said according to the international standards, heroin must be burnt at a temperature of 2500 degrees Fahrenheit for complete destruction for which special incinerators were required.

“If you don’t burn heroin at this temperature, only its upper layer is destroyed, while the rest of the drug remains intact,” Younus said. In United States, he added, special incinerators were used to completely destroy heroin.

An official of the ministry, however, admitted that they did not have such incinerators.

“After we have burnt the heroin, the place is guarded for five to seven days and then the burnt-out material is buried,” he said.

The NCD secretary, Ismail Hassan Niazi, said that according to the World Drug Report of the UN, Pakistan was the number one country in terms of seizure of heroin.

The conviction rate in heroin trafficking cases is 87 per cent, while a record Rs4,939 billion worth of assets of people involved have been seized, Niazi said.

“This is not a mean achievement,” he added. Niazi said that Pakistan was declared a poppy-free country but its cultivation re-emerged in some parts of tribal areas a couple of years ago.

“We have had meetings with the NWFP governor and other officials of the province so that it is completely destroyed and Pakistan again becomes a poppy-free country.”

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, member PAC, drew the NCD officials’ attention towards the porous Pakistan-Afghan border and said efforts should be made to completely stop heroin smuggling through these areas. “Unfortunately, they have not been able to stop smuggling. They should have stopped at least 50 per cent of the trade if not 100 percent,” Haideri said.

“This brings a bad name to the country,” he added. Niazi said according to the ministry’s estimates, there were three million drug addicts in the country and half of them were heroin addicts.

He said special wards for drug addicts had been established in some hospitals in the country.

“Two model treatment and rehabilitation centres are being established in Islamabad and Quetta which will be replicated in other cities too,” he added. Niazi said comparatively the availability of heroin in Pakistan is easier than alcohol that is why the number of its addicts is also greater than any other drug.— APP