Pakistan anti-narcotics body teams up with Higher Education Commission against drugs on campus

In this handout photo, taken and released by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan on August 29, 2024, HEC Chairman Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed (left) shakes hands with Anti-Narcotics Force Director General Major General Abdul Moeed as the two bodies collaborate against drugs on university campuses, in Islamabad. (Photo courtesy: HEC)
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Updated 20 September 2024
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Pakistan anti-narcotics body teams up with Higher Education Commission against drugs on campus

  • According to 2022 study by ANF, about 53% of university and college students in Pakistan were exposed to drugs
  • Student and facility say easy access, stress, sense of isolation and social media adding to problem of drug use 

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) this month announced a country-wide campaign against drugs on educational institutions, the chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as well as teachers and students in the federal capital also acknowledged the growing problem of narcotics use at the nation’s colleges and universities. 
According to an ANF study conducted in 2022, about 53 percent of students at Pakistani universities and colleges had been exposed to drugs, with around 27 percent admitting to using them.
“This campaign is in all tiers, like in drug demand reduction domain, in kinetic operations domain, in collecting information, in increasing outreach of government institutions so that that there is no drug or there is zero tolerance of any drug in any educational institution,” ANF Director Syed Sijjeel Haider told Arab News in an interview this month, explaining the agency’s plans to crackdown on drug use at institutions of higher learning.
“We are arranging awareness sessions in all universities. We are sensitizing the vice chancellors and the professors, etc. We are also sensitizing the parents, the teachers. We are also establishing focal points in all universities in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission.”
Haider said the ANF was in the process of collecting “focused and specific information” about drug use and sale of drugs in educational institutions.
“Accordingly, we will take enforcement measures as well,” he said, adding that the ANF had acted 84 times this year against drug dealers at educational institutions and filed charges against individuals arrested.
Pakistan’s interior ministry this year approved a new National Drug Survey, more than a decade after the last survey, conducted in 2012-13, revealed that around six percent of the Pakistani population, or 6.7 million people at the time, had used substances other than alcohol and tobacco in the previous year. The highest prevalence of drug use was recorded in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where nearly 11 percent of the population had used an illicit substance.
HEC Chairman Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed acknowledged that drug use was becoming a rampant problem on campuses.
“Yes, this is an issue and we are very much serious and we are concerned,” Ahmed told Arab News in an interview earlier this month. “The government has given a policy of smoke-free campuses and we have evolved a policy document, which was approved by the Commission and we have asked all universities to implement it.”
“Similarly, we are working with different bodies, statuatory bodies, regulatory bodies that they should also provide support and curb those people [drug dealers] which are doing such type of activity, especially when they are reaching our education institutions. It is not only in higher education, it is everywhere, unfortunately. But I think everybody is alert, university administration, government, HEC and other agencies are also working on these things.”
Ahmed said the menace of drug use could not be controlled by any single institution or body.
“It is the collective responsibility of parents, society, teachers, the HEC and university administrations,” the HEC chairman said, pointing out how social media platforms had made buying drugs or being exposed to dealers much easier. “We are all responsible for ensuring that such things do not happen.”
“VERY EASY TO ACCESS”
Students and faculty at a number of universities in the Pakistani capital also cited the easy availability of drugs as one of the key factors fueling the problem.
“The main issue with drugs is that they are very easy to access. With just one phone call, you can get any illegal substance delivered to your doorstep for very little money,” Muhammad Bilal Sial, a computer science student at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) in Islamabad, told Arab News.
“There are parties, there are pills, and many other things,” he added. 
Stress was a major factor also, many students said. 
Students are using drugs a lot, one reason is anxiety due to pressures, and financial issues,” Sial said. “Plus there are no jobs, no businesses and students are roaming around [unemployed] with degrees.”
Mahnoor Shah, a psychology student at Quaid-e-Azam University, also pointed to stress and a sense of isolation as a reason why students were turning to drugs. 
“Many students stay in the hostels, leaving their homes, so they indulge in such things due to loneliness, as it is very difficult to live alone,” she told Arab News.
Muqaddas Iqbal, another student at Quaid-e-Azam University, attributed the rise in drug use to peer pressure. 
“First of all, there is a lot of peer influence. If a friend is taking drugs and it is something normal for him, then you start thinking this must be something normal for me as well,” she said. “They start taking things out of a sense of adventure or thrill but ultimately, they become addicted.”
Dr. Wajid Zulqarnain, Head of the Media Sciences Department at SZABIST, said most students who took drugs lacked a strong bond with parents, making them more vulnerable to substance abuse.
“Majority of the cases is that they feel alien, they don’t have a good relationship with their parents,” he said, urging parents to pay more attention to their children’s activities and social media use. 
“Even though they [children] know this [drugs] is not good for their health, they take them because they don’t feel that they have any other alternative.”
Zulqarnain also blamed the proliferation of social media for the rise in drug use on campuses. 
“Particularly the students and the young students especially, after the invention of social media, that they have now easily accessed those groups and members who supply these types of drugs, particularly ice and atoms [methamphetamine],” he said. 
“Before that, it was thought that there were some sort of lower [university] staff involved in such activities, but not now.”


Haider tank, Shahpar fighter drone in spotlight as Pakistan’s top defense expo concludes 

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Haider tank, Shahpar fighter drone in spotlight as Pakistan’s top defense expo concludes 

  • Exhibition hosted over 550 exhibitors and 350 civil and military officials from 55 countries
  • IDEAS has been held biennially since 2000 and grown into a key event for defense sector

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top defense exhibition IDEAS 2024 will conclude today, Friday, with the locally manufactured third-generation Haider tank and Shahpar fighter drone among the South Asian nation’s main showpieces. 
IDEAS has been held biennially since 2000 and has since grown into a key event for the Pakistani defense sector. This year’s show, running from Nov.19-Nov. 22 in Karachi, hosted over 550 exhibitors, including 340 international defense companies, and more than 350 civil and military officials from 55 countries.
On the first day of the expo, Pakistan launched the Haider tank, locally produced at the Heavy Industry Taxila in collaboration with local and international technology partners. The tank has auto-tracking, a remote-control weapons system and a 470-kilometer cruising range.
The Shahpar-III drone capable of flying at 35,000 feet and carrying heavy weapons such as bombs, cruise missiles and torpedoes, was also launched at the exhibition. 
“I had no prior knowledge about these products, but upon visiting, I was astonished to discover such a top-class range of items being exported abroad,” Muhammad Mohsin, a visitor, told media.

A member of Pakistan armed forces takes a selfie with Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS) Shahpar, unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

“These products, manufactured in Sialkot, Gujranwala, and Karachi, truly showcase exceptional craftsmanship. It is imperative that these remarkable offerings gain greater recognition in international markets.”
Mohsin said he was unaware that Pakistan was exporting a “top-class range of items” in the defense sector until he attended this year’s IDEAS.
The Shahpar-III is a successor to the Shahpar-II drone, which could fly up to 20 hours at a maximum altitude of 23,000 feet, according to Global Industrial Defense Solutions (GIDS), a state-owned Pakistani defense conglomerate that has developed the drones. The Shahpar-III can fly up to 35,000 feet for 24 hours and carry a payload of up to 500 kilograms.

Members of the Pakistan Navy special force conduct a counter-terrorism demo during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

GIDS, which exports its products to 14 countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, introduced Shahpar-II in 2021.
“This [Shahpar-III] has a more strategic value to an armed force in comparison to Shahpar-II,” Asad Kamal, Chief Executive Officer of GIDS, told Arab News, adding that the drone would soon be inducted into the Pakistan Air Force.
“Shahpar-III is a natural step up when you’re making UAVs drones.”

Officials and people take pictures with a JF17 Thunder fighter jet during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

Kamal said the drone could see targets at night and “take out on the enemy” with heavy weapons. 
“That means that from your own borders, you can launch a cruise missile from an unpiloted plane,” he added. “That cruise missile has a range of 250 kilometers. So, it can give any force a lot of firepower value by having this sort of a weapon in its arsenal.”
With inputs from AFP

Members of Pakistan armed forces and their families look at a counter-terrorism demo during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)
Members of the Pakistan Navy special force conduct a counter-terrorism demo during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

 


Fear, grief grip Pakistan’s Kurram district as 41 killed in sectarian attacks

Updated 12 min 17 sec ago
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Fear, grief grip Pakistan’s Kurram district as 41 killed in sectarian attacks

  • Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying members of minority Shiite community in KP province on Thursday
  • Clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga called a ceasefire

PESHAWAR: Fear gripped Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram district on Friday as the death toll from two sectarian attacks rose to 41, with authorities imposing a curfew and suspending mobile phone services in the remote mountainous region.
Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying members of the minority Shiite community in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday in one of the region’s deadliest such attacks in recent years. The assault took place in Kurram, a district where sectarian clashes have killed dozens of people in recent months.
“Total 41 people have been killed and 19 others are injured in the attack,” Deputy Commissioner Kurram, Javaid Ullah Mehsud, told Arab News on Friday, saying police were yet to file a police report on the incident. 
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack, which came a week after authorities reopened a key highway in the region that had been closed for weeks following deadly clashes.
Mehsud told reporters a local jirga, or tribal council, had been convened to help restore peace and order.
Previous clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga called a ceasefire.
A senior administration official told the AFP news agency mobile signals across the district had been shut down, describing the situation as “extremely tense” with locals staging a sit-in in Parachinar, the district’s main town.
“A curfew has been imposed on the main road connecting Upper and Lower Kurram, and the bazaar remains completely closed, with all traffic suspended,“ the official said.
Shop owners in Parachinar had announced a strike on Friday to protest the attack.
Locals described an atmosphere of fear across the district. 
“The night was spent in tension,” Irfan ullah Khan, a local youth representative, told Arab News. “People in different villages were guarding their homes … The region is in grief as the situation is tense. Anything can happen.”
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the shootings a “terrorist attack.” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, and Sharif said those behind the killing of innocent civilians will not go unpunished.
Baqir Haideri, a local Shiite leader, denounced the assault and accused local authorities of not providing adequate security for the convoy of more than 100 vehicles despite fears of possible attacks by militants.
Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million population of Sunni-majority Pakistan.
With inputs from AFP


Pakistan reports two new polio cases in northwest, raising 2024 tally to 52

Updated 22 November 2024
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Pakistan reports two new polio cases in northwest, raising 2024 tally to 52

  • Cases detected in DI Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province 
  • Pakistan and Afghanistan are last polio-endemic countries in the world

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio eradication program said on Friday two new cases of the crippling virus had been detected in the country’s northwest, bringing the nationwide tally for 2024 to 52. 
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 52,” the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication said in a statement. 
“On Thursday, November 21, the lab confirmed the cases from DI Khan where a boy and girl child are affected. Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway.”
DI Khan, one of the seven polio endemic districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has now reported five polio cases this year.
Of the 52 cases reported in 2024, 24 are from the Balochistan province, 13 from Sindh, 13 from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, the federal capital.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021. 
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams. 
In July 2019, a vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was thwarted after mass panic was created by rumors that children were fainting or vomiting after being immunized.
Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that maternal illiteracy and low parental knowledge about vaccines, together with poverty and rural residency, are also factors that commonly influence whether parents vaccinate their children against polio.
Pakistan’s chief health officer this month said an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio vaccinations during a recent countrywide inoculation drive due to vaccine refusals.


Marathon polo tournament draws huge crowds in Pakistan’s picturesque north

Updated 22 November 2024
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Marathon polo tournament draws huge crowds in Pakistan’s picturesque north

  • Ten-day tournament played among 17 teams of Gilgit-Baltistan as part of independence day celebrations 
  • GB Independence Day celebrated on Nov. 1 every year to mark region’s independence in 1947 from Dogra Raj

KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: Large crowds have been gathering daily in the northern mountain town of Gilgit for a 10-day polo tournament being held to mark Gilgit-Baltistan’s Independence Day, the military’s media wing and government officials said on Thursday, the last day of the event. 
GB is administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. The impoverished, remote and rugged mountainous territory borders Afghanistan and China and is the gateway of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure plan. 
The Gilgit-Baltistan Independence Day is celebrated on Nov. 1 every year to mark the region’s independence in 1947 from Dogra Raj, the erstwhile rulers of the now disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.
“The big event of Jashan Azadi Polo Tournament was held at Wahab Shaheed Polo Ground in Gilgit, a remote area of the northern region under the management of Pak Army,” the military’s media wing said in a statement, saying Force Command Northern Areas, Maj. Gen. Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gillani, was the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the event in which 17 teams participated.

A Pakistani tribal polo team member chases the ball as the crowd watches the match during a polo game in Skardu, in Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

“The final match was won by Chilas in civil and NLI teams in departmental categories respectively,” the statement added. 
Gilgit-Baltistan is also known for the annual polo festival at Shandur, an area between the northern Pakistani towns of Gilgit and Chitral, and at over 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) the world’s highest polo ground. 
Polo in GB is played without rules and at a blistering pace, suggesting more of a clash of cavalry than a sport. Locals believe polo was born in their land and Gilgit is home to the famous polo inscription: “Let other people play at other things, the King of Games is still the Game of Kings.”

A Pakistani tribalmen perform traditional dance during a polo game in Skardu, in Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

Faizullah Faraq, the spokesperson for the G-B government, said thousands had come to watch the matches and celebrate the Gilgit-Baltistan Independence Day.
“Polo is the national game of Gilgit-Baltistan. And thousands of people reached Gilgit’s playground to watch the polo matches daily,” he told Arab News on Thursday. 
“Such kinds of activities unite the youth and they play their role to create harmony in the society. The promotion of polo is a need of time to maintain peace in society.”

Crowd watches the match during a polo game in Skardu, in Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

Afrad Gul, the team captain of the winning Chilas team, appreciated locals who supported the tournament. 
“I have been playing polo for the last 15 years, my son was also part of my team,” Gul said in a phone interview. “We have left no stone unturned to keep this regional game alive.”


Pakistan government slams Imran Khan’s wife for using Saudi Arabia for ‘political point scoring’

Updated 22 November 2024
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Pakistan government slams Imran Khan’s wife for using Saudi Arabia for ‘political point scoring’

  • Deputy foreign minister urges political forces to desist from compromising Pakistan’s foreign policy for political objectives
  • Khan has been in prison since August last year and facing a slew of legal challenges which he says are politically motivated

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government on Friday rejected comments by Bushra Bibi, the wife of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, that Saudi Arabia had been opposed to her husband’s government, calling on political forces to desist from compromising the country’s foreign policy for the sake of “petty” political point scoring. 
In a rare public message on Thursday, Bushra assured state institutions Khan had no plans to seek revenge from opponents if he was freed from jail, as she rallied supporters to join a protest planned by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Islamabad on Nov. 24. In the message, she also made remarks that were widely seen as implying that the Saudi government had been opposed to Khan. 
“Implicating Saudi Arabia for petty political point scoring is regrettable and indicative of a desperate mindset,” Pakistan’s deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said in a statement after Bushra’s video was released. “We urge all political forces to desist from compromising Pakistan’s foreign policy in pursuance of their political objectives.”
“Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are close friends and brothers. This relationship is based on mutual respect,” Dar added. “We have great admiration for Saudi Arabia’s journey of development and prosperity. The Pakistani nation is proud of its close relationship with Saudi Arabia which has always stood by Pakistan through thick and thin.”
After his ouster from the PM’s office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2022, Khan had also alleged that he was removed by his political rivals and the all-powerful military with the backing of the United States government. All three deny the charge. 
Khan has been in prison since August last year and facing a slew of legal challenges. He denies any wrongdoing, and alleges all the cases registered against him are politically motivated to keep him in jail.