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Moin to release Narcotics Board report today

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider is scheduled to release the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board at a press conference at the United Nations Information Center here on Wednesday.

The report, according to well-informed sources, will include surveys on the narcotics situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The INCB works in close proximity with the UN Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) that has a regional office in Islamabad, which coordinates activities with the national authorities here.

A UN official said that this year's report showed that even though an increased proportion of opiates continues to originate from Afghanistan, the situation Pakistan is markedly different. In fact, he said, Pakistan now clearly represented a success story in the fight against drugs. The Government had reiterated its commitment to pre-empting the sowing of opium poppy seeds in the 1999-2000 growing season and eradication has been especially successful in the Dir district where almost no opium poppy was harvested last year. No new laboratories for the illicit manufacture of heroin have been detected in Pakistan, the official added.