Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
Pakistan is known to the world as one of the major transit countries for trafficking of drugs and narcotics, particularly opium and its products e.g. heroin, morphine and other opiates, produced in the neighbouring Afghanistan. Of both the poppy-addicted economy of Afghanistan, which accounts for more than 85 percent of the world poppy cultivation, and the Taliban, who depend on narcotics money for over 40 percent of their insurgency finances, Pakistan is the worst victim. International community, too, labels Pakistan as the main contributor to this state of affairs. According to estimates by United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), over 43 percent of Afghanistan’s narcotics are trafficked through Pakistan to Middle East, Europe and other parts of the world. Indubitably, there are commendable successes and achievements of the country’s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in its fight against drug dealers and smugglers but still a lot needs to be done.
The incalculable losses and multifaceted ramifications of the drug trafficking through Pakistan have taken a heavy toll on the country’s young generation. The huge – and growing – number of addicted youth especially in the educational institutions, as recent reports suggest, is a looming catastrophe our nation can never afford. We are losing our educated youth, which is our future, our real asset, to the menace of drugs. According to a spine-chilling report by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), availability and use of narcotics in educational institutions, including the most reputed ones, of the federal capital has gone alarmingly high.
Around 8.9 million people in Pakistan are drug addicts and a considerable majority of them is from our educational institutes. Nearly 700 people die every day due to drug–related ailments and complications, making the deaths related to drugs greater than those caused by terrorism – the latter kills 39 each day compared to the 700 deaths from drug addiction every day – and this trend is, unfortunately, still on an upward trajectory with no signs of abatement. What else is needed to bring the authorities out of their deep slumber and inaction to tackle on this very issue that seriously endangers our human security?
It is believed that education is panacea to all social ills and the most potent deterrence against any hazardous activities. But, the situation today seems the other way around. All the government’s claims in this regard are self-deceiving and nothing more than a mere lip service. If the scourge continues, time is not far when people would start losing trust in educational institutions as bodies of awareness and nourishment of young minds.
Apart from using drugs, many a youth is languishing in prisons where they reached just out of their lust to avail narco-trade as a shortest ‘golden opportunity’ to be rich and wealthy overnight. Unemployment and lack of opportunities to earn a respectable livelihood, as well as a craving for becoming wealthy overnight are some of the reasons that lure young people to earn lucre and filthy money. These young minds will get impressed by those among the people they know who, erstwhile deprived, are enjoying the luxuries; and their only ‘qualification’ was a ‘courage’ to take risk in this dirty business. They instantly became rich and started purchasing properties and became influential figures of the area within no time. These people also use our youngsters for their drug pedalling but many of those youngsters were made scapegoats, and even sent to gallows, without inflicting any punishment for their masters who have gone scot-free. We must realize that it’s not an ordinary loss; it’s a generational loss, an alarming human security threat.
Although it is a grave threat to our future, yet there is another one that is far more serious and dangerous but less explored and less discussed. Narco-smuggling and trafficking is a continual threat to Pakistan’s national security. Although the role of drug money in funding and financing militants and terrorists to orchestrate terrorism in Pakistan is beyond calculations, yet the issue, unfortunately, is given least consideration. There is no denying the fact that unless the flow of money to terrorist outfits from various sources is curtailed, a complete and decisive victory in this war against this enemy within will remain a far cry.
Former Army Chief, General (Retd.) Raheel Sharif, during a special visit to the ANF Headquarters in Rawalpindi in August 2015, asserted that the “drug money is being used for promotion of terrorism and therefore it is important that drug dealers are dealt with an iron hand.” At the same time, he laid great emphasis on, and shown an indomitable will to, breaking “the nexus between drug dealers, financiers and perpetrators of terrorism” The COAS expressed his commitment adding that “We will not allow these drug barons to negatively influence and spoil our future generations.” He called the narco-terror nexus detrimental to the country’s national security and pledged to come down hard on producers, dealers, peddlers and pushers of drugs.
Although the government has taken various steps to curb this menace, a big breakthrough in this regard is still missing.
Some estimates suggest that in 2009 only, the Afghan Taliban earned an income between $100-300 million from drug trade. Over the course of seven years, this amount increased significantly and as per the results of Afghanistan Opium Survey (October 2016) conducted by the Afghanistan’s Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the UNODC, the opium production in Afghanistan rose by 43 percent to 4,800 metric tonnes in 2016 compared with 2015 levels. Similarly, showing an increase of around 10 percent, the area under poppy cultivation rose from 183,000 hectares in 2015 to 201,000 hectares in 2016., This number is horrific and is pregnant with immeasurable implications for Pakistan.
Reportedly, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other anti-state insurgents, especially those active in Balochistan, take a big chunk of these drug revenues as a price for not interrupting the narco-trade supply lines. Their interests have converged – and none of them is a lesser terrorist in terms of inflicting death and destruction rather narcotics have killed more people than those killed in acts of terrorism. Even behind terrorism, there is, as noted earlier, the narco-economy that is used to support these terror operations.
Setting of the priorities is the most pressing need of the time if we are to rid the nation of this vicious nexus. However, roots are always to be addressed first.
The narco-terror nexus is far interwoven and deep-rooted than it appears to be. Pakistani Taliban and Baloch insurgents, who love killing innocents in every nook and cranny of the country, are also gnawing from this feast offered by Afghan Taliban and drug mafias. Similarly, in Balochistan some very powerful drug cartels and criminals have direct access to Islamabad’s power corridors.
Broader vision, difficult decisions, holistic approach and serious efforts are the direst need of the time. Despite establishing special courts for narcotics criminals, our justice system is still a significant stumbling block in this way. Strong laws at the hands of corrupt and visionless authorities are surely, in effect, toothless. Corruption, too, has inflicted great damage in this regard and even those caught red-handed have been released as a result of ‘big deals’. ANF must have a strong intelligence system at least at Union Council and police station levels. The protection of informants and witnesses is very crucial to the success of such a drive. Furthermore, a robotic intelligence and vigilance system may also prove a key to thwarting the narco-terror nexus. In addition, anti-drugs awareness and education campaigns, which have already been carried out by ANF, should be expanded. Above all, the nation has to be stronger from within if it really wants to purge its soil from the pedlars of drug and terrorism.
