PESHAWAR: The Pabbi Intellectual Club, Nowshera, has come up with a novel way to treat the patients of psychiatric disorders and drug addicts.

Besides using pharmaceutical interventions, the club, which was established in September last year, is also hosting mushairas, seminars and musical events for the rehabilitation of patients.

“There is a significant improvement in the lives of drug addicts and mentally sick patients. Rehabilitation activities are held separately from other social activities at the club as we cannot expose their identities to others. Every Sunday, we take patients from Peshawar, where they are provided entertainment,” Pabbi Intellectual Club psychiatrist Dr Mian Iftikhar Hussain told Dawn.

According to him, drugs provide addicts with short-term ‘pleasurable and soothing’ feeling, which is very harmful and creates psychiatric disorders. Dr Iftikhar said some people struggled to manage stresses of life, so they adopted unhealthy ways including the use of drugs for temporary respite.

“We provide them with healthy, fun activities for recovery,” he said.

Dr Mian Iftikhar, a consultant psychiatrist, said he dedicated his farmhouse in the native Pabbi village, Nowshera, to the welfare of people with mental health issues and drug addiction, in the memory of his wife, who died of Covid-19 in 2020, and hosted mushairas, musical events and seminars on the premises.

“It is very important to provide such a platform to people in addition to pharmaceutical inventions to enable them to lead a normal life. We encourage them to ask questions and sing songs. Our weekly programmes are meant to address the issues, which lead to psychiatric issues,” he said.

Dr Iftikhar said the club with 28 members from different walks of life was home to activities to spread awareness and create positive thoughts for prosperous life.

He said the club held seminars on Pakhtun culture, violence and extremism, and organised musical programmes.

“Pashto mushaira, promotion of new books and events on positive and negative aspects of the use of social media are part of our programme. Recently, we celebrated the International Women Day with a Pashto mushaira attended by women,” he said.

Dr Iftikhar said the club was run as a resource center for promoting positive healthy trends and transforming community culture for the people’s better future.

“In near future, we will create vocational centres and drug addiction detoxification and rehabilitation centres for free services by involving the residents,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2022