Islamabad rally highlights drug problem

Some 400 people participated in a walk on Sunday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in an effort to raise awareness of narcotic abuse. "Our objective is to make Pakistan a drug-free haven," Aurangzaib Malik, chairman of the indigenous NGO Zindigi Foundation and organiser of the walk, told IRIN on Monday. "What was particularly significant about this walk was the age group of the participants involved, which was between 16 and 30: the same group most affected by drug use and addiction in our country." The walk follows a report by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) on Wednesday 21 February that opium and heroin addiction rates in Pakistan were among the highest in the world. There were an estimated 20,000 heroin addicts in the country in 1980, 1.5 million in 1990 and a staggering three million in 2000, according to a press statement issued by Zindigi on Sunday. As many as 15 million people have been effected indirectly by the abuse of drugs in the country, it stated, quoting the Pakistan Narcotics Control Board, According to the World Drug Report of the United Nations Drug Control Programme released in January, Pakistan is one of the countries worst hit by narcotics abuse in the world. Heroin is not the only drug being abused in Pakistan, according to Malik, who said addiction to cannabis, injected drugs, cocaine and pills, and the misuse of prescription drugs were also on the rise. Malik cited unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, frustration with the social system and psychological problems as the main causes of a rise in drug addiction in Pakistan. "We need to educate people and raise awareness against this curse," he said. Wasseem Igaz, commander of the Pakistan Anti-Narcotics Force in Rawalpindi, a twin-city at some 30 km distance from Islamabad, told IRIN his unit had sponsored Sunday's walk to draw the attention of the authorities and the general public to the issue of drug abuse. "The message from this walk was clear, especially for the youth, that drug addiction is a serious problem and requires a collective effort on the part of both the government and society to counter this menace," he said.