Staff Reporter
President Dr Arif Alvi has asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan to formulate drug policy for the higher education institutions by March 2021 so as to save the students from the menace of narcotics and provide them healthy learning environment. He gave these directions while chairing a meeting of the Committee on Drug Abuse and Welfare of Differently-abled-Students. The meeting was attended by Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training (FE&PT), Mr. Shafqat Mehmood, Minister for Narcotics Control, Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Minister for Human Rights, Dr. Shireen Mazari, Secretary FE&PT, Ms. Farah Hamid Khan, Secretary Narcotics Control, Mr. Shoaib Dastgir, Chairman HEC, Dr. Tariq Banuri and DG Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Major General Muhammad Arif Malik.
The meeting discussed various proposals to eradicate the menace of drugs from educational institutions. The Vice-Chancellors of various universities of the country gave their respective proposals via video-link to contain drug abuse in universities. The meeting emphasized the need to raise awareness among youth by engaging social workers, media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society. It also underlined the need for closer collaboration among stakeholders, particularly the M/o FE&PT, Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) and law-enforcements agencies to protect the educational institutions from drug abuse.
The President also asked HEC to initiate measures for the welfare and facilitation of differently-abled-students in the educational institutions by providing them waiver in tuition fees, special transportation facility within educational institutions and relaxation in age.
