ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has only 1,600 staf f members to counter over 40 per cent drug trafficking of the world via Pakistan.

This was disclosed during a briefing to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by the ANF on Tuesday. It was stated that the ANF had 1,600 `enforcers` to counter the smuggling of heroin and other drugs from Afghanistan to Pakistan and then to the rest of the world.

The PAC was examining the appropriation of accounts of the Narcotics Control Division for the year 2009-10.

Brigadier Zahid Abdullah, the chief of staff ANF, informed the PAC that the 2,600 staff members were working against the 3,148 sanctioned strength of the force. The 1,600 enforcement staff members have been deployed to counter the drug trafHcking through conventional and unconventional routes. The rest are peons, helpers and clerical staff, he added.

The official said due to the shortage of staff, the ANF was facing difficulty in deploying enforcers at the Multan airport from whereinternational flights were started recently.

Besides, the ANF is also working at 13 international airports and three ports.

Earlier, Secretary Narcotics Control Division Mohammad Ghalib Ali informed the committee that according to an estimate Afghanistan produced over 70 per cent of world`s poppy. He said the poppy was cultivated in the insurgency affected areas of the country. He said 43 per cent of heroin and other synthetic opioid consumed worldwide were smuggled through Pakistan.

Because of the rise in its volume, the consumption of these drugs is also increasing in Pakistan, he added. `The ANF has raised questions at different regional and international forums to stop the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan,` the secretary added. He said the federal government in 2013 had evolved an antinarcotics policy for `supply and demand reduction of narcotics and seel(ing international cooperation` to counter the drug trafficking.

Responding to a question by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed about the government`s efforts to rehabilitate the addicts, Mr Ali said at present there were three rehabilitation centres set up by the federal government. Two of them are funded by the federal government while thethirdishnanced bythe donors.

Besides, the Narcotics Control Division has asked hospitals to allocate 10 beds each for the drug addicts. However, the parents of addicts preferred not to admit their affected children in the rehabilitation centres or hospitals because they considered it a `social stigma.

Mehmood Khan Achakzai pointed out that as per an estimate there were over 1.5 million addicts in Pakistan and they consumed 1,000 kg heroin daily.

Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho asked the secretary if it was true that the drug money was being used for terrorism and other sabotage activities in Pakistan.

Mr Ali replied that there wasno evidence of the use of drug money in terrorist activities. He, however, said the ill-gotten money was being sent abroad through money laundering and people involved in it also invested in the real estate.

`The ANF has ceased over Rs5 billion assets which it believed were purchased through the drug money,` he claimed.

The PAC chairman remarked that during the Taliban era, there was a marginal decrease in the poppy growth in Afghanistan but that period also witnessed a number of other issues in that country.