Minister left red-faced when facts about drug use divulged

ISLAMABAD: The Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi was left red-faced on Monday at a seminar when he was confronted with real facts on drug use in education institutions.

The minister who had claimed that 75 percent female and 45 percent male students in elite Islamabad schools are hooked on drugs was informed that a real study by Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) in collaboration with HEC has revealed that only 2% students are frequent drug users. The study was shared at a Seminar which was held according t organisers to “dispel the reverberation about the exaggerated figures on drug abuse in educational institutions.” Interestingly, the minister was chief guest at the seminar organised by QAU’s Department of Sociology to share the findings of a survey conducted in collaboration HEC. Interestingly the minister who addressed the gathering did not say a word about the data on drug abuse. He also refrained from repeating his own figures on the occasion. According to Dr Imran minister was asked to comment about the finding of the survey but “he did not have time to comment.”

In his speech Shehryar Afridi emphasized the need of exemplary practical measures in society particularly in educational institutions. The minister- whose own nephew Talal Nadir Afridi, had been arrested for possessing drugs a few day ago-stressed on the supremacy of law and assured that government will take strict action against those who are inflicting the drugs in educational institutions.