Minister of Federal Education and Professional Madad Ali Sindhi chaired a high powered meeting to take effective measures to curtail the spread of drugs in the academic institutions of Pakistan. DIG ANF, Executive Director HEC, DDG FDE, and representatives from PEIRA attended the meeting. Senior officials of the ministry including Additional Secretary Junaid Ikhlaq and Seinor Joint Secretary Abdul Sattar Khokhar were also present. Madad Ali Sindhi said that the drug problem is a pandemic and is a serious problem that is not given due importance. Minister said that we have launched a comprehensive campaign to spread awareness about the issue and further take practical and decisive actions to curtail drug usage in academic institutions of Pakistan. He said that it is high time that it is addressed with full force. He emphasized the role of HEC, PEIRA, and FDE to control the spread of drugs in academic institutions. He ordered all of these bodies to conduct a comprehensive exercise to identify the problematic areas in collaboration with Anti Narcotics Force. He said that we need to understand the spread of the problem first before we devise a strategy to curtail it. Madad Ali Sindhi said that youngsters in Europe are dying on the roads becasuse of this problem. He said that we have not reached that point yet and we will ensure that we control this issue before it gets out of hands. He said that there are almost 250,000 students in the Federal Public Schools that should be put at top priority. He directed the FDE to table a comprehensive report on the spread and use of drugs in public schools to him. He said that all of these students are the future of Pakistan and we cannot let them waste their potential due to drugs. Madad was briefed by the representatives of FDE, PEIRA and HEC about their policies regarding drug use control. He was told that all three institutions have detailed policies that are in place to curb the spread of drugs. He was informed that the issue remains in the implementation of the policies. He directed all the officials to establish a common forum to oversea the efforts to eradicate drug use in educational institutions. Rommel Akram DIG ANF told the minister that ANF is able to seize 80% of the total drugs in Pakistan. He said that ANF faces a serious issue of resources as it only has 1972 employees. He said that even though ANF has limited resources, it is able to out perform. He emphasized the need of collaboration between the academic institutions and ANF. He said that drug use is a menace that even USA has not been able to control even with 1.5 times expenditure of the GDP of Pakistan. He said that on the direction of the minister ANF will provide total support to the academic institutions and a forum for collaboration between HEC, FDE, PEIRA, Ministry and ANF will be formulated.
PREVIOUS NEXT
