PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to produce a report within 14 days on the functioning of drug rehabilitation centres in the province and the funds received for the purpose from different sources.

A bench consisting of Justice Mussarat Hilali and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mehfooz ordered the home and social welfare secretaries to inform it about the steps taken to check the growing incidence of beggary.

It observed that the government report should explain how much funding it had received from the federal government, foreign donors and NGOs for the rehabilitation of drug addicts in the province.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by senior lawyer Malik Mohammad Ajmal against the growing number of drug addicts on streets with a request for the issuance of directions to the federal and provincial governments to take steps for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and prevention of the supply of narcotics to them.

The petitioner also requested the court to direct the government to control beggary on streets and rehabilitate beggars, especially children and women.

Asks depts about steps taken against beggary

He claimed that for the last many years, the number of beggars and drug addicts had increased manifold across the province, especially Peshawar.

Justice Mussarat Hilali observed that it was regrettable that beggars were seen on all busy roads and crossings in large numbers.

The bench observed that drug addicts were spread in the city.

It added that it was the responsibility of the government to address those issues and work for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and beggars.

Peshawar deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali Asghar informed the bench that professional beggars had been shifted by contractors to the city from Punjab and Sindh but they’d yet to be traced.

Petitioner Malik Mohammad Ajmal said if the administration knew about the shifting of beggars from other provinces, it should have traced the ‘contractors’ doing so.

The petitioner said the home secretary and provincial police officer had filed admitted that the number of drug addicts in the province were on the rise.

He said the incidence of drug addiction had increased in educational institutions with students using crystal meth.

Malik Ajmal said some NGOs had been rehabilitating drug addicts in the province but there were no noteworthy steps taken by the government for the purpose.

The petitioner said there existed certain federal and provincial laws on narcotics and beggary control, including Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance, 1959, Pakistan Employment of Children Act, 1991, KP Child Protection and Welfare Act, 2010, and KP Orphanage (Supervision and Control) Act, 1976, but they hadn’t been implemented.

He said though the KPCPWA was enacted in 2010 and through it several laws were repealed, it had not been implemented and the number of child beggars had been on the rise.

The petitioner said the CNSA provided for the establishment of centres for treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts but despite passage of 21 years this law had also not been implemented.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2020