The United States and other countries should stop supplying chemicals to Afghan factories, producing heroin, to save the rest of the world from drug abuse, said Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Ghaus Bakhsh Khan Mahar here on Tuesday.
"Poppy cultivation is still going on in Afghanistan, and drugs are being supplied to the world from this war-ravaged country", he said while talking to reporters at Rawat on the occasion of burning the confiscated drugs to observe International Anti-Narcotics Day. The Minister applied flame to the huge dump of impounded drugs.
He said that in spite of the tireless efforts by Pakistan to eradicate poppy cultivation, the Afghan government was not co-operating to make these efforts a success. "If the Afghan government is not able to eradicate poppy cultivation, and destroy heroin production units, the Nato should use its force to destroy the poppy crop", he said.
Mahar said that Pakistan had raised the issue of elimination of poppy cultivation and drug abuse in Afghanistan with US and other countries asking them to play their due role in this regard. Pakistan has been making efforts to stop smuggling of heroin, but the demand in the world market was the main hurdle, he added.
The Minister turned down the suggestion of any new legislation against drug smuggling, saying that more than 63 drug smugglers had been awarded death penalty or life terms by courts, but all these cases were yet pending to complete the process.