The Sindh Assembly on Monday unanimously passed the Sindh Control of Narcotics Substances Bill 2024 to introduce a stringent regime in the province against the production, trafficking and sale of drugs.
Sindh Senior Minister for Information, Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Sharjeel Inam Memon tabled the bill. The new law envisages a stringent regime of punishments including lengthy jail terms and heavy fines to deal with the issue of supply of drugs to educational institutions.
The law also envisages setting up special courts, special police stations and an inter-provisional coordination regime against drug trafficking. The special courts to be established under the new law will decide the narcotics-related cases in just six months. The new law will also authorise the government to seize the assets purchased out of the proceeds of the drug trafficking.
Speaking on the aims and objectives of the new law, Memon told the House that President Asif Ali Zardari had asked the Sindh government to take decisive action against the menace of drugs in the province.
He said the leadership of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had the firm resolve to get rid of the drug menace from Sindh. He said the narcotics control department would provide full assistance to any concerned legislator who wanted to take any step against the drug use in Sindh.
He said the anti-narcotics drive had to be stepped up in the province to secure the future of the coming generations. The minister expressed gratitude to all the concerned political parties, Sindh chief minister and members of the provincial cabinet for lending the fullest support for passing the new law aimed at curbing the drug menace in Sindh.
He assured the concerned lawmakers that a decisive crackdown would take place against all those involved in drug trafficking regardless of their status and influence in society. Earlier, the chairman of the relevant standing committee of the House, Najam Mirza, presented the committee’s report on the bill.
Subsoil water
Meanwhile, responding to call attention notices, Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani informed the legislature that as many as 13 licences had so far been issued for the extraction of subsoil water in Karachi under the revised rules adopted by the Sindh government for the purpose. One of the call attention notices pertained to the shortage of potable water in Korangi due to the extraction of the subsoil water by industries nearby.
Ghani said the Sindh government, for the first time, adopted a law in 2018 to manage the system of subsoil water extraction in Karachi.
Initially, 34 licences were issued for subsoil water extraction under the 2018 law and 20 of them were later rescinded due to violation of the rules.
The local government minister informed the legislators that the House adopted a revised law for the purpose in 2024. He explained that the new law defined five categories for the grant of licences and it did not cover domestic consumers.
All the previous licenses issued under the 2018 law had been cancelled, he said. Ghani explained that 13 licences had so far been issued under the revised 2024 law while the cases of the rest of the applicants were being processed.
The Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation would pay 25 per cent of the licence fee to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation as the groundwater recharge fee, the minister said.
Answering to another call attention notice, he told the House that the Sindh government had been requested to provide 2,000 acres of land to resettle the affected people of the Lines Area Resettlement Project.
He told the lawmakers that the number of affected persons had increased from 20,000 to 25,000, whereas there had been 17,000 claimants in 1980. He said that earlier, 100 acres of land had been allocated in Korangi for the purpose, but that land was illegally occupied. Ghani said the authorities concerned had been searching for the land to resettle the affected persons.