ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN
ECO DCCU Country Profile 2005
Basic Country Facts
Geography/topography
Located in South Asia, Pakistan shares an eastern border with India and north-eastern border with China . Iran makes up the country's south-west border, and Afghanistan runes along its western and northern edge. The Arabian Sea is Pakistan's southern boundary with 1,064 km of coastline. Pakistan is Asia’s seventh largest country. It covers an area of 796,095 square kilometers and is nearly four times the size of the United Kingdom. The country expands for more than 1,600 kilometers from south to north, and approximately 880 kilometers from west to east. Islamabad is the capital of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Pakistan is divided into four provinces viz. , North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. The tribal belt adjoining NWFP is managed by the Federal Government and is named FATA i.e., Federally Administrated Tribal Areas. Azad Kashmir and Northern areas have their own respective political and administrative machinery, yet certain of their subjects are taken care of by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas. Provinces of Pakistan are further divided into Divisions and Districts.
Demographics and Human Development Index indicators
Population (July 2006 est.): 165 million
GDP per capita (PPP, 2005 est.): USD 2,400
Illicit Drug Trends
Supply Side Trends: Cultivation, Production, Supply and Trafficking
Cultivation and Production
Opium production has been greatly reduced, due in large part to eradication efforts by the Government of Pakistan (GOP). Opium poppy cultivation occurs primarily in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. The tribal areas of the NWFP are fairly autonomous, as the central government has limited involvement in local affairs. The GOP conducted aggressive crop eradication programs in poppy growing regions. In past years, the Dir District accounted for most of the opium produced in Pakistan. However, since 1999, the primary area of poppy cultivation has been the Bara River Valley in the Khyber Agency, which borders Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province. This is a closed area within the FATA of Khyber, which means access to the area is limited and the political agent has less direct authority. Poppy reduction in Pakistan reached its peak in 2000, when the country brought the level of cultivation down to 6 mt from 800 mt in 1980. In 2001, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) declared Pakistan poppy free. However, there are fears that with the fall of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, cultivation could resume in Pakistan. Small amounts of the crop are still believed to be growing in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), mainly in Khyber Agency.
During the crop season 2002-2003, there was resurgence of poppy cultivation mostly in the accessible mountainous areas of NWFP and Balochistan. The cultivation took place in an area of 4875 acres and 39 mt of opium was produced.
Cannabis grows wild throughout NWFP, but also it is deliberately cultivated across the country. No estimates of Pakistan’s marijuana or hashish production are available, although Interpol reports that Pakistan and Afghanistan together produce about 1,000 metric tons of hashish each year. Pakistan, as well as Morocco and Afghanistan, were most often mentioned as a primary source country for cannabis resin by countries reporting to UNODC.
Pakistan has declared two chemical precursors namely Acetone and Acetic Anhydride as narcotic drugs. Acetic anhydride (AA), which is legitimately used in large quantities by the textile and leather tanning industries, is an essential chemical in the manufacture of heroin. Only one Pakistani company is known to have produced AA, and it could only meet a quarter of the total legitimate requirement; but it was closed in 1998. It transits Pakistan en route to Afghan conversion laboratories. There have been no significant seizures of AA in Pakistan since September 1998, when a 10-mt shipment from Hungary was intercepted. The Government has established control over AA, and mandates import only by licensed industrial consumers. AA is imported from European countries, as well as Japan and India.
Trafficking
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan serves principally as a major transit country for opiates and cannabis originating in Afghanistan. In 2001, some 8,755 kg of heroin were seized by Pakistan's law enforcement agencies despite massively increased control along the Afghan border and a sharp reduction in the production of illicit opium in Afghanistan. Opium products, often processed into morphine base or heroin in Afghanistan, are then shipped through Pakistan to world markets by Pakistan-based traffickers. The smuggling of opiates originating in Afghanistan into and through the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has returned to the levels attained prior to the ban on opium poppy cultivation introduced by the Taliban in 2000, as seizures in Pakistan show.
In 2001 compared to 2000 the share of “traditional” route (through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and the Balkans) in heroin outflow from Afghanistan decreased by 32%, as evidenced by seizures. At the same time, there was 42% increase in heroin trafficking along the northern route. In 2002 there was not much change in trafficking, according to seizures of heroin and morphine. The transit of Afghan opiates through Pakistan and Iran slightly increased, while Tajikistan and Uzbekistan accounted a slight decrease in this area.
In terms of the volume of drugs seized/trafficked, the primary transit route is from the Afghanistan/Pakistan border into the Pakistan's Province of Balochistan before crossing the Iran/Pakistan border into the Iranian Province of Sistan/Baluchestan for onward movement to Europe. The sea coast area of Pakistan, including the main ports of Karachi, Port Qasim, the smaller fishing ports and open areas of the Makran coast, are vulnerable to drug traffic to the Gulf States and beyond. The consignments of hashish are loaded into containers in secret storage areas or in the various dry places throughout the country before being carried to Karachi or to the container depot at the nearby Port Qasim, the only two international container ports in the country. The drugs are often concealed in a legitimate export consignment. Another area of concern is the trafficking from Afghanistan into the North-West Frontier Province. The drugs from this route, predominantly heroin, are smuggled in much smaller quantities but then dispatched throughout the country, much of it destined for foreign markets. Drugs are also being regularly seized from passengers at the various international airports in the country to be smuggled abroad, to a myriad of destinations, and smaller quantities, particularly of the opiates, being found in the international mail system.
Demand Side Trends: Drug Abuse and Related Problems
Opiate addiction rate in Pakistan continues to be among the highest in the world. Although in 2001 Pakistan reported stabilized rates of opiates abuse, the abuse of opiates by injection has been increasing rapidly. Most of the drug abusers use opium, and the method of use is through smoking/inhalation. Pakistani addicts prefer to smoke heroin, which is called “chasing the dragon,” but an increasing number of addicts are injecting heroin and generally share needles. According to U.S. Department of State reporting, 126 metric tons of opium is required each year to meet the needs of Pakistani opiate users. Thus, opium illicitly produced in Pakistan does not satisfy even domestic demand, and opiates must be smuggled in from Afghanistan to meet the needs of the country’s many users.
Hashish users are the second largest group of drug abusers. Hashish use is common and an accepted practice in some areas. The official and public attitude toward opium and hashish use has been one of benign tolerance. However, the dramatic increase in heroin abuse has caused attitudes to change.
Pakistan is one of the hardest hit by narcotics abuse in the world. Drug abuse has grown dramatically in the country over the last 20 years. In 1980, there were virtually no heroin addicts in Pakistan, but by 1982 there were an estimated 30,000 addicts. The most recent drug abuse survey was conducted in 1993-1994, and estimated that there were 1.5 million heroin addicts in a drug abuser population of 3 million. However, the total addict population is now believed to be near 4 million. As of heroin alone, the National Drug Abuse Assessment Survey reports over half a million of heroin addicts at present, which are 360 persons per 100,000 inhabitants. However, independent studies indicate that this number could be higher, up to 2 million, which quadruples the prevalence.
Intravenous Drug Use (IDU) and HIV/AIDS
Although drugs in Pakistan are mostly ingested orally and heroin is usually smoked, the number of cases of heroin injection is rapidly increasing, particularly in the southern city of Karachi, also increasing the risk of transmitting blood-borne diseases, such as hepatitis-C (HCV) and HIV/AIDS, through the practice of needle sharing. The HCV infection rate among IDU drug users is more than 10 times higher than in the country’s general population. The estimated HIV prevalence remains at about 0.06 per cent of the population, but keeps on increasing. Most of the HIV infected persons belong to the 20 to 49 years age group. Though heterosexual route is the most common, through IDU is also prevalent.
Counter-efforts
Domestic Drug Control Framework
National Legislation
In 1995, two anti-drug ordinances were passed. They were converted into law in 1997. The Anti-Narcotics Force Act established the ANF as the leading anti-drug agency. The Control of Narcotics Substances Act criminalized all drug-related activities, which brought Pakistan into compliance with the 1988 U.N. Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs. Provisions of this law make money laundering a crime and establish procedures for asset forfeiture and for participating in mutual legal assistance requests.
In 1998, the Government extended the ANF Act and the Control of Narcotic Substances Act to Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs) in the NWFP. For the first time, federal anti-drug laws could be fully enforced in tribal areas. Special Narcotics Courts were established in 2000 and 2001 to speed up drug prosecutions in Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Quetta.
National Drug Control Institutions
Many agencies have drug law enforcement responsibilities in Pakistan, but the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) is the primary anti-drug law enforcement agency. Established in July 1994, the ANF incorporated members from the Anti-Narcotics Task Force and sections of the disbanded Pakistan Narcotics Control Board. The ANF is responsible for developing and implementing Pakistan’s overall drug control policy. Since October 1999, following a military coup, Pakistan has been under military rule. This has not impacted the narcotics law enforcement structure established by the previous government. A particularly successful area of cooperation between the U.S. Government and the GOP has been the ANF’s Special Investigative Cell. This is a specially trained unit that targets major violators.
Other agencies include the Pakistan Rangers, the Airport Security Force, the Federal Investigation Agency, Frontier Constabulary and Frontier Corps, the Pakistani Coast Guard and the Pakistani Customs Agency, departments of police and taxation in the four provinces, and tribal militia groups.
Countering Cultivation, Production, Supply and Trafficking
Poppy reduction in Pakistan reached its peak in 2000, when the country brought the level of cultivation down to 6 mt from 800 mt in 1980. In 2001, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) declared Pakistan poppy free. However, there are fears that with the fall of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, cultivation could resume in Pakistan. Small amounts of the crop are still believed to be growing in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Over the past few years, the government of Pakistan with the assistance of the international community has been able to isolate and restrict poppy cultivation to a few areas of the NWFP's tribal areas: Dir District, Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand Agencies.
Although opiate conversion laboratories were once common in Pakistan, all laboratory activities moved to Afghanistan in the late1990s. It is believed that traffickers relocated in order to be closer to the abundant supply of raw opium in Afghanistan, as well as to avoid law enforcement actions in Pakistan. In the past, the following areas of Pakistan were locations for opiate processing: the Khyber, Mohmand, and Bajaur Agencies of the NWFP, the Chagai Hills Division, Baluchistan and the Ribat area at the western tip of Pakistan. In 1999, the GOP destroyed two heroin conversion laboratories: one located in Quetta, the second in Rawalpindi. In 2000-2002 period there were no new laboratories discovered.
In Pakistan, it is predominantly morphine and heroin that are being seized, while seizures of opium have further decreased, underlining the role of Pakistan as a transit country rather than primarily a production country and indicating that the abuse of heroin in that country is more common than the abuse of opium.
In 2003, Pakistani law enforcement agencies seized 5379 kg of opium, 33005 kg of heroin, 87149 kg of hashish and 686 kg of marijuana.
Demand Reduction and Rehabilitation
Demand reduction is a part of Pakistan’s drug control policy. The ANF’s Drug Abuse Prevention and Resource Center coordinates demand reduction programs in the four provinces. The Government of Pakistan initiated a 5-year drug control master plan, which addresses demand reduction, but the programme needs financial support.
The UNODC has agreed to fund 16 drug treatment and rehabilitation centers throughout Pakistan to treat hard-core and other addicts. However, GOP funding to expand the country’s drug treatment facilities and to raise awareness of the dangers of drug abuse remains inadequate.
There are 29 government-operated drug treatment centers in Pakistan and 44 private drug treatment and rehabilitation centers. Treatment facilities have had good success with treating opium users, but are much less successful with heroin users. The recidivism rate is extremely high for chronic heroin addicts—especially for treatment that involves only physical detoxification.
In Pakistan, three “drop-in” centers for persons infected with HIV/AIDS have become fully operational and the establishment of a network of centers for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug abusers is under way.
International Cooperation
International Conventions
Pakistan has ratified the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
Bi-Multilateral Agreements
Pakistan is party to numerous regionally-based drug control agreements organized through Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), UNODC and other organizations. Regional efforts have sought to deal with a set of problems common to countries in the region, including a lack of basic resources to institute effective drug control programmes; the links between drugs, organized crime, and international terrorism; and the destabilizing effects of the drug trade on each country’s economy and security. Aside from the programmes operating through the ECO, regional agreements and programmes include the following:
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In 2000, the "Six plus Two" group (Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, China, as well as the Russian Federation and the USA) with the support of ODCCP established a working group to strengthen drug control cooperation among the countries bordering Afghanistan, e.g. to enhance their interdiction capacities (“Security belt”). In September 2000, the "Six plus Two" group, with ODCCP’s assistance, elaborated and approved a Regional Action Plan for countering the Afghan drug threat.
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South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Narcotics Control Committee
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Eleven countries have drug liaison officers stationed in Pakistan and conduct active counter-drug programmes in the areas of law enforcement and demand reduction.
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Pakistan has drug-related bilateral agreements with a number of countries, including the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, China, and India.
Sources and Publications used in preparing this profile:
q Global Illicit Drug Trends, UNODC 2003
q Global Illicit Drug Trends, UNODC 2002
q Country profiles at UNODC website
q Annual Report INCB 2002
q US State Department INCSR 2002 Report
q Drug Reports of Islamic Republic of Pakistan