"According to ANF investigators Gray's Pharmaceuticals owned by Hanif Abbasi has misused the 500 kg ephedrine as the documents provided by them do not match the usage or their version," Director Legal Akhtar Abbas told the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Narcotics Control on Wednesday.
He said that the ANF investigators had registered an FIR against other seven pharmaceutical companies which were chosen out of 99 pharmaceutical companies, as the investigators were convinced they had committed crime. "Investigation is underway against some other companies and there are chances that FIRs may be registered against some other companies," he said.
The meeting was presided over by chairman of the committee Murtaza Javed Abbasi MNA and attended by Laiq Muhammad Khan, Naseer Bhutta, Syed Aimr Shah, Nausheen Saeed, Secretary Ministry of Narcotics Control Javed Iqbal, Secretary for the Ministry of National Regulations & Services Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, Director General (DG) Ministry of Narcotics Control Muhammad Shahid, Director Legal ANF Akhtar Abbas and other senior officials of ANF.
Imtiaz Inayat Elahi informed the committee that before devolution the ephedrine quota was determined by the Ministry of Health, but after 18th amendment it was regulated by Drug Regulatory Agency (DRA) of Ministry of National Regulation and Services. After the 18th amendment and ephedrine scam a committee has been constituted headed by Secretary Ministry of Narcotics Control, Director General ANF, Secretary DRA and Drug Controller of DRA, he said.
He said that new standard operating procedure (SOPs) for allocation of quota of controlled drugs have been devised. Under the new SOP the committee will check last three years' record as well as average usage of ephedrine of every company before allocation of 100 kg ephedrine, he said. Naseer Bhutta said that the new SOP would fail in controlling misuse of ephedrine as we could not learn lesson from the past experiences.
Director Headquarter ANF Brigadier Zahid said that due to strict poppy control mechanism adopted by ANF in co-ordination with other Law Enforcement Agencies (LAE), poppy crop in Pakistan was under control. Pakistan has been acknowledged as poppy-free state for the year 2011. Internationally, less than 1000 hectares is considered as poppy-free state, he said. On this MNA Nausheen Saeed said that if Pakistan was poppy-free state then why drug was available everywhere in the country.
Laiq Mhummad Khan said that the main reason of easy availability of drug was that poppy cultivation continues in the country's settled areas in large scale. He said that Poppy was cultivated not only in tribal areas, but also in settled areas and he assured the ANF officials to provide correct information in this regard. He said that it was the responsibility of ANF to control supply of drugs in the country.
MNA Nausheen Saeed said that due to poor check by the authorities most of the drugs were easily available in front of different educational institutions. On this DG Shahid said that the drug addiction rate was higher in the institutions where tuition fee was higher. "In educational institutions like Beaconhouse school drug addition rate is higher and they don't allow our staff to hold awareness campaigns," he noted. He said that Afghanistan was producing 90 percent of the world opium and the opium was converted into heroin. Afghanistan produced 5800 metric tons of heroin in 2011 and 44 percent of the produced heroin was routed through Pakistan. It has been estimated that 25 percent of the traded drug was consumed in Pakistan, he said.
He said that use of drugs was a major issue as 60 percent of the addicts were in the age group of 15 to 16. According to a survey, 80 percent of injected drug users in Sindh and Balochistan and 70 percent in Punjab are sharing needles and are a major threat for spreading HIV/ADIS. He added said that Pakistan was facing Sheesh as an emerging trend, which is particularly spreading among young men and women from higher socio economic strata and has surpassed cigarette smoking among this group.
Murtaza Javed Abbasi asked Secretary Ministry of Narcotics Control to speed up work on the control of narcotics substances amendment bill, 2012. He directed the secretary to discuss the proposed amendment bill with members and committee decided that further deliberations would be made in this regard. Javed Iqbal told the committee that the ministry had recently received the bill from law ministry and would soon present it in the committee. The committee has constituted a sub-committee to consider the ephedrine cases of 99 pharmaceutical companies and make Lahore Drug-Free city.
The committee has strongly recommended that issues regarding release of funds to the Ministry of Narcotics Control should be addressed and showed concern over the less interest of government to resolve the Ministry of Narcotics and ANF's problems.