United Nations Office on Drugs Control has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Narcotics Control and Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) on a joint project of 'Drug Dependence Treatment and HIV/AIDS Awareness' with total cost of about $30 million.
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UNODC and the Minister for Narcotics Control signed the agreement here on Monday. Antonio said that Pakistan remained a major transit country for Afghan opiates and the ANF estimated that up to 36 percent of opiates trafficked through Afghanistan were destined for countries in Western Europe, Africa and East Asia.
On a question that UNODC emphasises more on destruction of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and Pakistan while drug demand and supply issue was continuously neglected, Antonio said that the UNODC would counter supply and demand process in western countries in the next step.
He said that 60 percent increase in poppy cultivation was recorded during the current year and insurgency programme was launched in five provinces of Afghanistan.
The project will be completed in three years (2007-10), which aims to counter the drug abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS in four selected prisons through interventions that will enable prisoners to make their own informed choices against drug abuse, prison life and HIV/AIDS. The project is expected to serve as a model for the implementation of similar interventions on a larger scale.
The objectives of the project are to provide comprehensive rehabilitation services to prison inmates with aimed at reducing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. UNODC's policy is to support the government in its efforts to strengthen policy and build institutional capacity for drug control, crime prevention and to generate international political and financial support for what Pakistan is doing in these areas.
Other current UNODC activities in Pakistan include $1.1 million assistance to develop intelligence collection and analysis capacity in the Anti Narcotics Force, the Frontier Corps, Balochistan, the Frontier Corps, NWFP and Federal Investigation Agency. The UNODC has started projects for women drug abuse problems with the cost of $270,000 and $580,000 assistance for street children with drug abuse problems.
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