KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday echoed with concerns over the growing trend of sale and use of synthetic drugs and narcotics in the city as opposition lawmakers raised the issue in the house urging the provincial government to take steps to curb the menace.

Replying to a call attention notice moved by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Saeed Ahmed Afridi, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the provincial government had a zero-tolerance policy against the use and peddling of drugs.

Answering on behalf of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who holds the portfolio of home department, he said that total 129 kg of hashish — 88 kg from district West and 41 from district Keamari — had been seized by the police.

Mr Memon said that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government was committed to eradicate the drugs menace, adding that the drugs were smuggled to Sindh from other provinces where the PPP was not in power.

Opposition asks govt to curb menace; house passes textbook board and motor vehicles bills

The PTI MPA in his call attention notice invited the attention of house towards the serious ‘open’ sale of drugs in the whole Karachi specially in his constituency (PS-120).

He said that different types of drugs were being sold in every street of his constituency in district West due to which the youth was being destroyed. “This House should be apprised that what steps the police are taking to stop it [sale of drugs]?” Mr Afridi asked.

He said that according to a report as many as 363 drug and narcotics dens were operating in the city with active connivance of police. “The drugs are not being sold at any secret or hidden places, but in open places,” he said, asking what hindered the authorities to take action against them.

In a separate call attention notice, PTI’s Shahnawaz Jadoon said that his constituency PS-113 in Keamari district had become a breeding ground for the prevalence, sale and consumption of various kinds of drugs and gutka.

He said that drug dens were openly selling heroin and ‘ice’ in parts of his constituency such as Sultanabad, Masang Road and Machhar Colony.

The PTI member said that young boys including students of ninth and tenth classes had become drug addict. “There has been a surge in thefts and house robberies due to this menace,” he lamented.

Replying to his call attention notice, Excise Taxation and Narcotics Control Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that three gutka manufacturing factories had been seized while 245 people were arrested.

“It is the duty of all of us to stop the use of drugs,” he said, asking the opposition members to keep pointing out the areas where the gutka and drugs were being sold.

The excise minister assured that that the provincial government would take strict action against it.

Dilapidated roads in metropolis

Mr Memon, who also holds the portfolio of the transport department, informed the lawmakers that the provincial government had released Rs1.5 billion to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Karachi Development Authority with a time frame for repair and rehabilitation of the roads on the route of the Peoples Bus Service in the city.

Replying to a call attention notice given by Rabia Khatoon of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, the minister said the repair work on the bus routes would start from Thursday (today).

“Funds of billions of rupees have also been allocated for the repair of other roads in the city,” he added.

In her call attention notice, the MQM-P lawmaker asked the local government department as to what steps were being taken for the repair of the roads and streets damaged by the recent spells of the monsoon rains.

She said that the roads and streets were in a dilapidated condition across the city, which was also littered with the heaps of garbage and filth. Besides, she said, there were ponds and puddles of rainwater in the city, while the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board had miserably failed to remove garbage in every part of the metropolis.

Ms Khatoon said that 90 per cent roads in the city had been affected due to recent monsoon spell, causing severe traffic jams and other issues.

She said that the new buses of Peoples Bus Service were plying on the same roads and they might turn miserable like previous buses, if keep plying on the dilapidated roads.

“The KMC and KDA have been directed to make these roads motorable in minimum possible time,” Mr Memon said.

Meanwhile, the house also passed ‘The Sindh Textbook Board (Amendment) Bill, 2022’ and ‘The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021’.

The sitting was adjourned to Thursday (today) at 2pm.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2022