KARACHI: Amid an alarming rise in the use of drugs, a recent report of the intelligence arm of the Sindh police has revealed that around 500 drug peddlers are operating in different parts of the metropolis, it emerged on Thursday.

The report, prepared by the Special Branch, said that until recently the total number of drug peddlers in Karachi was 1,300 and with the efforts of law enforcement agencies 800 of them had been arrested.

Quoting the report, Additional Inspector General of the Special Branch Ghulam Nabi Memon, who is currently the acting chief of Karachi police, told Dawn that Sindh police chief Mushtaq Mahar had estab­lished ‘inter-district teams’ to launch a crackdown against drug dens and peddlers in Karachi and other parts of Sindh as part of a comprehensive strategy of the provincial government to curb the use of drugs in the society.

Four rehab centres planned

He said that the Sindh government was planning to set up four rehabilitation centres in the city in the first phase for the rehabilitation of a growing number of drug users as the majority of them were involved in street crime.

He said the provincial government had recently got passed a law from the Sindh Assembly to amend the existing anti-narcotics law by enhancing punishment and including drugs like ‘ice’, ‘crystal’ etc, in the definition of drugs.

He said ‘ice’ and ‘crystal’ were expensive and consumed mostly by affluent youths.

Addl. IG Memon said that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was spearheading a campaign for elimination of drugs as all law enforcement agencies and federal government had realised that it was a serious issue and concerted and collaborative actions were required to tackle it.

He recalled that in the past, the performance of the police was assessed on the basis of the quantity of drugs they seized, but that criteria had been changed now. “If the drug seizures are growing, it means there is some weakness or inefficiency on part of the police,” he opined.

He confirmed that 800 drug peddlers, out of total estimated 1,300, in Karachi alone had been arrested.

Legal flaws

The senior police officer said keeping in view the record that suggested that drug peddlers either easily got bail or handed down minor punishment by courts, a team comprising four SSPs having sufficient legal knowledge was set up to identify possible flaws in the existing laws.

He said the team had pointed out many things including the absence of any lab to test the seized drugs that resulted in acquittal of many accused. He said that many accused opted to plead guilty before the trial court as they knew judges would take a lenient view in handing down sentence to them if they entered a guilty plea.

He said these aspects were also taken up by the top authorities before the provincial government and the superior judiciary.

On its part, he said, the Sindh government had amended relevant laws this year to enhance minimum punishment to five years.

Besides, it had also established a lab at the University of Karachi for testing the seized drugs. In the amended law, ‘ice and crystal’ had also been included in the definition of narcotics as previously police had to show seized ‘ice’ as hashish (charas).

The chief of the Special Branch said that his department was submitting ‘regular reports’ about drugs to the Sindh chief minister on his directives as he was personally leading the ongoing anti-narcotics drive.

To a question about involvement of certain policemen in patronising narcotics dens in Karachi, he said ‘actions’ had been taken against those found involved as “some of them were suspended while others were given show-cause notices”.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2021