ISLAMABAD: The Senate standing committee on interior and narcotics on Monday advised the federal ministry of education to conduct medical test on admission seekers to colleges and universities to ensure the students are not using drugs.

Moreover, the committee suggested that the ministry of information direct all media outlets to dedicate 0.5 per cent of their airtimes for creating public awareness about the drug abuse.

The committee meeting held at Parliament House was presided over by Senator Rehman Malik. Director General Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) General Khawar Hanif and other officials briefed the committee on the situation of narcotics in the country.

The committee was informed that eight million people between the age of 15 and 64 years used drugs during the last one year. Over three million people were using ‘addictives’ (medicines which can be used as drugs).

The committee members were informed that in 2015 as many as 324 cases of drug smuggling were registered out of which 89 per cent were decided. In 2014, around 27,100 kilogrammes and in the year 2015 as many as 62,219 kilogrammes drugs were confiscated and burnt. Assets worth Rs1.55 billion were seized and Rs1.88 billion related to drugs were confiscated.

Senator Rehman Malik said the Afghan transit trade agreement should be reconsidered. Containers going to Afghanistan under the agreement pay a nominal fee in Pakistan but when they enter Afghanistan Taliban forced them to pay $7,000 each, he said.

“Even now opium is being cultivated in 32 per cent area of Afghanistan on which the Afghan government and Taliban have control,” he said.