DG ANF Major General Musarrat Nawaz Malik informed Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control, which met with Senator Abdul Rehman Malik in the chair, that checking of Boeing 777 is still continued to keep check over drug smuggling.
"During last few months four major cases of drug trafficking have been discovered in PIA planes," he said, adding that 15-kg heroin was found hidden in PIA Boeing 777 at Karachi on April 3, 2017, 11-kg heroin was recovered at Heathrow Airport on May 15, 2017, 14.7-kg of heroin was recovered from Boeing 777 at Benazir Bhutto Airport on May 22, 2017 and 2.4-kg heroin was found in Boeing 777 aircraft at Karachi Airport on May 31, 2017. He will visit Heathrow next month to exchange some important information. He further said that a total of 14 members of drug trafficking ring involved in these four major incidents, who were mostly employees of PIA, arrested by the ANF. One Afghan national and two Pakistani accused are still at large, he added.
Malik said the arrests made by the ANF mostly include junior employees; therefore, the committee should be informed about the possible involvement of senior PIA officials. Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi said that ANF and other agencies should prepare a comprehensive mechanism in order to avert such incidents in future. "The concerned agencies need to determine the role of people responsible for such kinds of incidents," said Senator Syed Shibli Faraz. Senator Muhammad Ali Khan Saif said that the lack of coordination among different agencies including ANF is one of the main reasons behind the growing cases of drug trafficking.
To a question raised by Faraz, the DG ANF said that not a single official of the ANF was found involved in all the four major incidents. The ANF is facing acute manpower shortage and a summary has been forwarded to the Prime Minister to raise the strength of force up to 10,000 from 3,148, he said, adding that the ANF is not only facing problem of shortage of manpower but is also lacking modern equipment including full-body scanner, handheld narcotics analyzer, luggage scanner, and GSM tracker device.
He said that the ANF is also not part of fair trial act and it operates according to three different laws. Malik recommended secretary of Ministry of Narcotics Control to send a summary to cabinet to make ANF part of fair trail act. He also directed the secretary Ministry of Narcotics Control and the ANF to submit their requirements, both about manpower and financial needs, with the committee so that these can be approved from the government.
Malik said that Afghanistan is the major country for the production of narcotics and drugs. It is time for Pakistan to ask the US to 'do more' in order to eliminate drugs from Afghanistan, he said, adding that drug and narcotics is an international issue and affecting every country including West and the death ratio from drug is higher than ratio of deaths in terrorism.
He emphasized on the need for border management with Afghanistan to block entry of all kinds of narcotics and drugs. Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Lieutenant General Syed Salahuddin Tirmizi (retd) said that his ministry is making serious efforts to increase its coordination with provinces. The United States and Afghanistan governments are making efforts to eliminate drugs, but Taliban cultivate poppy crop in their dominated areas for financing their terrorist activities, he added.
The committee also took serious notice of the incident of missing important documents, stolen from the residence of Senator Syed Shibli Faraz and directed Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Sajid Kiani to ensure the recovery of the stolen documents.
Malik said that the committee is receiving a lot of complaints against the owners of different housing societies. He directed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take action against all those housing societies that are selling plots without registration and no objection certificates (NOCs) from authorities concerned and Capital Development Authority (CDA). Senator Mohammad Saleh Shah, Senator Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamrah, and senior officials of Ministry of Narcotics Control, Ministry of Interior, FIA and police also attended the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017