KARACHI: Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Memon said on Monday that the provincial government was increasing the number of rehabilitation centres for drug addicts in Sindh.
At a press conference, he said that currently, there was a capacity to accommodate 400 people in the rehabilitation centres in the province while there were 7,000 pending applications from individuals seeking help to overcome their addiction.
Mr Memon, who holds the portfolios of excise and taxation, information and transport, said the excise and taxation department had taken significant measures to prevent the spread of drugs. “We must protect our younger generation from the menace of drugs,” he added.
The minister said that 178 cases had been registered against drug peddlers since March, 200 of them had been arrested and a sizeable quantity of contraband narcotics had been recovered from them.
He said the provincial police had conducted 5,629 raids, registered 6,396 cases, and arrested 7,571 suspects, recovering 5,096kg of drugs from them. “As many as 316 drug dealers were sent to jail and their five gangs were busted,” he said and added that 189 suspected drug dealers were arrested in Karachi and 57 were killed in encounters with the police.
Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2024