Senate is told that there are 7 million drug addicts in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Seven million people are drug addicts in Pakistan and about 700 of them lose their life every day due to complications pertaining drugs; the Senate Standing Committee was told on Monday.

The director general of Anti Narcotics force highlighted the measures taken by the Narcotics Control Division to the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control, under the chairmanship of Rehman Malik, for the interest of the drug addicts.

Khawar Hanif, the ANF DG Major general, outlined that there are around seven million drug addicts in Pakistan, whilst a shocking figure of 3 million constituted of those who take the medicines without prescription.

He revealed that the deaths caused by drug complexities are more than those caused by terrorism. With the latter killing a general amount of 39 compared to the 700 civilians who die due to narcotics.

The Senate committee chief, Rehman Malik, after the briefing, suggested that all television channels should allocate 0.5{c8e7245b8ab68c565aad156e68e78729a90ed3dd91ad3177b3c5a92377d109db} of their air time for creating awareness amongst the general masses about the havoc incited by narcotics.

Malik addressed the senate and told his opinion that the drug cartels served a major role in propagating terrorism.

However, on being asked if the money pinched from drug dealing is boosting terroristic activities in the country, Secretary Anti-narcotics Ghalib Bandesha said, “Our investigations have revealed that there is no apparent nexus between terrorism and drug business in Pakistan.”