Asia-Pacific

Pakistan aims to be poppy free in 2007

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-06-26 01:27

Pakistan would get the poppy- free status this year, said Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Ghous Bux Khan Mehr Monday.

He made the remarks here at a ceremony held on the eve of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The day is marked every year on June 26.

Bux said that the Pakistani government was making all out efforts to curb the menace of drug and to interdict narcotics which are smuggled out of Afghanistan.

"The Ministry of Narcotics Control is very much successful to control narcotics smuggling despite resource constraints and poppy- cultivation would come to zero level in Pakistan during this year, " the minister said.

"We can change friends but not neighbors, every year drug production is increasing in Afghanistan and Pakistan has become a victim of it," he said and expressed commitment to root out the menace through the support of the international community.

According to official figures, poppy production in Pakistan has been reduced to an almost negligible quantity thanks to the efforts of the country's Anti Narcotics Force (ANF).

During the year 2006, the ANF seized 347,307 kilograms of heroin/morphine, 115,443 kilograms of hashish and 18,705 kilograms of opium.