International drug, trafficking, runs through ,Pakistan
Pakistan has always pursued a zero tolerance policy for of all types and forms of drugs. That approach has
significantly contributed in a visible reduction in drug production in the country over the past several
years. For one, poppy cultivation in erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has been
largely eliminated.
The drug production in Pakistan had largely been confined to [opium] poppy cultivation and its
processing into hashish, or charas. Pakistan has, however, never been a significant heroin producer.
According to one account, opium was cultivated on 32,000 hectares in 1978, which was reduced to 5,215
hectares in 1995. In subsequent years, as noted by a UNODC report, “Pakistan’s cultivation of opium
poppy largely declined… to near zero levels in 1999 and 2000.”
1 The report noted that though the poppy
cultivation in Pakistan dropped to mere 213 hectares in 2001, it spiked from that point, “probably as a
result of high opium prices following the Taliban’s prohibition of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.”2 As
a result, in 2003 poppy cultivation reached at 6,703 hectares, however by around mid 2007 the total area
cultivated declined to 2,306 hectares.3
Conflict in Afghanistan boosted poppy cultivation and drug production in the country. Pakistan shares an
over 2,400-kilometer long border with Afghanistan. Pakistan’s border with Iran is also over 900 km in
length. Despite continuing fencing of these borders, many areas still remain unguarded, especially along
the border with Iran
