Massive anti-drugs campaign planned in Peshawar

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is all set to launch a massive anti-drugs campaign in the provincial capital aimed at making addicts productive members of society by rehabilitating them through institutionalised efforts.

Called “Drug-Free Peshawar,” the idea of the drive is stated to be the brainchild of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and the task has been entrusted to Peshawar Division Commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud.

The commissioner chaired an important meeting seeking input of senior government officials, health experts, public representatives, civil society and the media.

Besides others, MPA Asif Khan, Anti-Narcotics Force regional director general, Brig Abdul Manan, Director Narcotics Control Salahuddin Khan, DG PDA Shehbaz Khan, SSP operation Haroon Rashid Khan, deputy commissioners Nowshera, Charsadda and Khyber were present in the marathon consultative session.

Riaz Mehsud told the participants that the task is “huge and difficult” but they have firm belief to achieve the target of making the provincial capital free of drug addicts and making them useful members of the society.

“We have already started work on the project and collected data of the drug addicts and their hotspots in Peshawar,” he said.

The commissioner and other participants of the meeting, however, challenged the number of drug addicts, 527, in Peshawar Division, including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mohmand and Khyber, which was collected by the special branch of provincial police and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

The Peshawar district administration has collected the data of 1000 drug addicts in Peshawar alone.

The commissioner said the number of drug addicts seemed to be more than 2000 in the provincial capital.

In the data, some of the identified hotspots of drug addicts are stated to be Karkhano Markets, Board Bazaar, Khyber Teaching Hospital premises, Shoba Bazaar, Bacha Khan Chowk, Railways Warehouse, Dilazak Road, Yakatoot Police Station’s jurisdictions, and the railways track near the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.

Some of the participants shared some more hotspots of the drug addicts and urged the commissioner to also focus on women and children involved in drug addiction.

A noted philanthropist, Dr Parveen Azam Khan, chief executive of Dost Welfare Foundation, offered her services to look after women and children involved in drug addiction.

They also criticised the role of certain relevant departments, including ANF and police, for not being able to take action against the drugs suppliers.

SSP operations, Peshawar, Haroon Rashid Khan informed them that the police last year had arrested 10,000 drug addicts and filed cases against most of the suppliers.

He said there was 90 percent conviction in drug cases and 95 percent are released on bail.

“The irony is that the police don’t have the power to punish them. Would you believe, the police spend Rs7000 on investigations of one addict-cum supplier but he is freed after paying a fine of Rs500,” he added.

He said they don’t have the lodging facilities for the addicts and handed over the rehabilitation centre to the social welfare department.

Riaz Mehsud said they don’t want to repeat the past mistakes by conducting a one time exercise, saying they wanted to achieve tangible goals and that’s why involved all stakeholders in the consultation and seeking their input.

He said this time they divided the campaign in different phases as removing drug addicts from the streets would not serve their purpose.

There was lack of coordination between various government departments and the lack of ownership led to the failure of campaigns undertaken in the past, he added.

In a detailed presentation, Assistant Commissioner Ihtishamul Haq informed the participants about the insufficient rehabilitation facilities for drug addicts in Peshawar, saying there was a single 100-bed government-run centre offering detoxification, lodging and rehabilitation services.

The centre is always overburdened and unable to cope with the growing number of drug addicts, he said.

He also cited issues such as lack of human resources, insufficient facilities and lack of coordination in the centre which is unable to handle such a huge task.

He said they had identified 18000 beds for drug addicts and their rehabilitation in 13 public and private health facilities.

The camping comprises three phases, in phase one, they would pick up drug addicts from their hotspots and would also launch a crackdown on drug peddlers, as most of the participants suggested that all such efforts would go to waste until and unless strict action is taken against the suppliers.

It would involve all the stakeholders, including the police, IB and ANF to crack down on drug peddlers and Section 144, CrPC would be imposed to empower the police to take action against the drug suppliers.

In phase 2, they would focus on medical detoxification and treatment of drug addicts, their screening for HIV, Hepatitis-B/C, their initial detoxification and providing them first aid, if required.

Riaz Mehsud said they would repatriate the drug addicts to their home districts in seven days or two weeks as some of the addicts belong to other districts but they come to Peshawar where they can easily get drugs.

It would need funds and their estimated cost per drug addict is Rs20,000 and every addict would require three months of stay in the rehabilitation centre