NA panel takes up seized narcotics controversy on 16th

ISLAMABAD: A sub-panel of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Narcotics Control takes up, on March 16, a big controversy that erupted after the Dalbandin assistant commissioner alleged that the Chaghi deputy commissioner refused to take charge of the seized narcotics.

The Subcommittee will probe the matter of confiscation of drugs by the Dalbandin official and the refusal of her senior to take charge of the narcotics. The panel has asked the narcotics control secretary, Balochistan Chief Secretary, Kharan commissioner, Assistant Commissioner Ayesha Zehri and the Chaghi deputy commissioner to attend its meeting.

In February, a team of Levies Force personnel led by Ayesha Zehri seized a vehicle and claimed to have recovered drugs worth millions of rupees from it. She said that her team was informed by a source that a transnational organised drug smuggling group armed with sophisticated weapons was carrying drugs in a caravan of cars.

Along with a team of Levies Force personnel, she went to the Kazyo area of Posti, situated on Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where they were expecting the convoy to pass through. “We stationed ourselves on two opposite sides of a hilly, narrow and daunting route. After a long wait, a caravan of cars reached the area late at night. During the tough continuous operation of nearly three hours that included a fierce exchange of fire from both sides, we successfully contained the caravan by puncturing the tyres of one of their [Iranian] Zamyad vehicles loaded with drugs.”

She alleged that Chaghi deputy commissioner declined to take charge of the drugs, comprising various packets of powder, recovered from the intercepted vehicle. “I have come to know from in charge of the station that the deputy commissioner instructed him not to take charge of anything ‘madam’ brings in. So, we have been denied to take charge of the vehicle loaded with drugs.”

However, Deputy Commissioner Fateh Khan Khajak denied having given instruction of not taking charge of the intercepted vehicle with drugs. As the row intensified, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Alyani took notice of the tussle between the two administration officials and ordered an inquiry.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) assembling on 12th and 13th March will get a briefing on different projects of Gwadar, including the new international airport, desalination water plan, 300MW power plant, Pak-China Friendship Hospital and Technical and Vocational Institute, Gwadar East-Bay Expressway, and Gwadar Smart Port City Master Plan.

The CPEC Authority chairman will inform the committee the functions of his organisation and the progress he has so far made. The Board of Investment secretary will talk about the three special economic zones--Allama Iqbal Industrial City, Faisalabad; Rashakai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Dhabeji, Sindh --including provision of gas and electricity with timeline.

The forum will be told the overall impact of coronavirus on development projects of the CPEC. The railways secretary and Sindh transport secretary will brief the committee on Karachi Circular Railway and ML-1 projects, including issues relating to their implementation.

In the meantime, the standing committee on information and broadcasting, which will meet on March 9, will discuss the action taken by the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to stop vulgarity and obscenity in private media channels especially in live talk shows like discussion on Mera Jism Meri Marzi (my body, my right).