- Senators summon PIA, CAA officials to brief about heroin recovery case
Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control on Friday unanimously approved Illegal Dispossession (Amendment) Bill 2017 under which land grabbers would face imprisonment, fine or the both.
The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Rehman Malik here, discussed in detail the bill before its approval. Rehman said that minimum punishment limit should also be set which is quite important. Besides State Minister for Interior Baligh-ur-Rehman, Chaudhry Tanveer Khan, Muhammad Javed Abbasi and Muhammad Ali Saif also attended the meeting.
The committee also got assurance from the Ministry of Interior Affairs for further amendment in the bill. It also directed that within 15 days after approval of the bill, the ministry should introduce amendments. With regard to recovery of heroin from the Pakistan International Airline plane, Rehman said that the incident should be investigated.
The committee asked why the consignment of drugs was not checked at the airport. The committee issued directions to summon officials of PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority CAA) in the next meeting to get a detailed briefing on the matter. He appreciated the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) for its timely and prompt action against drug traffickers.
Senior officials of the Narcotics Control Division and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) briefed the committee on narcotics recovered from the PIA planes at the Heathrow Airport in London and the Benazir International Airport in Islamabad. The committee appreciated the FIA director for arresting the three foreigners, who were trying to travel on forged documents.
The committee also announces to issue appreciation letter to officials who arrested the foreigners. Senator Javed Abbasi said that the investigation should be transparently conducted, as departments concerned were blaming each other on a matter relating to the recovery of narcotics from the PIA plane. Rahman said that smuggling of narcotics was being made under an organised system which should be prevented.
The committee also took notice of fake news being shared on social media. Senator Abbasi said that he was abroad but a news regarding him was shared on social media, posing like a TV news ticker. He said when he asked the private news channel, its management clarified that no such news has been shared on the social media.
Rahman said that a news regarding PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had also been shared on the social media and directed FIA to arrest those involved in these incidents and present a report to the committee in fifteen days. Briefing the committee, the ANF officials said that two incidents regarding recovery of heroin have occurred with an interval of six days and all flights, taking off from Pakistan were being checked.
“We are inquiring the matter but still no person has been arrested,” they said, adding the heroin recovered from both Heathrow and the Islamabad airports were of same kind and quality. The ANF officials were performing duties in cargo, immigration and other departments, they informed.
