Punjab govt orders to keep educational institutions free from drugs

Lahore : The ministerial committee for devising strategy to keep the educational institutions free from drugs held its second meeting at the directorate of staff development today.

Provincial minister for schools education Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan and higher education minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani co-chaired the meeting. Besides them, regional director anti narcotics force Brig. Khalid Mahmood Goraya and representatives of schools education, higher education, social welfare, excise & taxation and police departments attended the meeting.

The meeting pondered over the agenda of keeping the campuses free from narcotics in detail. It observed that narcotics are injurious to health and youth must be provided healthy and congenial atmosphere to study.

Higher education minister Raza Gillani informed that public sector universities’ vice chancellors have already been instructed to devise their standard operating procedures and follow government’s directions with regard to curbing the menace of drugs. He said that medical equipments should also be provided to identify the students affected with drugs.

All the higher education institutions in the province, including public, private or belonging to the federal government, would abide by the government’s instructions so that their students could remain safe from drugs. No one is above the law and immediate action would be taken against the delinquent, he warned.

He observed that parents, teachers, ulema, media men and civil society should come forward to play their collective role for the eradication of drugs from the society.

Provincial minister Rana Mashhood, who is also the convener of the committee, said that focal persons should be appointed by the educational institutions, and their list be sent to the government. He disclosed that a comprehensive system would be devised to stop any use of drugs in the institutions.

The educational institutions should adopt zero tolerance policy and keep close liaison with the police for securing their students from drugs. He asked the parents to sensitize their kids about hazards of drugs from their early childhood.

He told that next meeting would be held in seven/ten days; and asked the departments to come prepared, along-with suitable strategy, to proceed further in this regard. The family set up is very important in keeping the budding kids safe from drugs. Therefore, the family elders should keep close watch on the company of their children, so that they may not succumb to any bad habits, concluded the minister.