Prisoners to undergo blood screening

LAHORE:In the light of directions of Lahore High Court and Punjab government, a meeting presided over by Punjab Chief Secretary Azam Suleman Khan on Wednesday decided to carry out blood screening of prisoners in all jails, their biometric verification from Nadra and treatment and rehabilitation of those who are drug addicts.

Additional Chief Secretary Home, administrative secretaries of different departments including specialised healthcare, primary and secondary healthcare, schools education, higher education, IG Prisons, additional IG Operations and officers concerned attended the meeting that reviewed the steps to control abuse of drugs in jails and educational institutes in the province. The meeting reviewed progress on work of health profiling of students in all government and private schools, colleges and universities. The chief secretary also asked the law-enforcement agencies to launch a crackdown on drug pushers.

The chief secretary directed that besides controlling narcotics in the province effective measures be taken to rehabilitate drug addicts and rehab centres be set up at government level in this regard. The meeting also deliberated on a proposal to establish a drug rehabilitation centre at Kala Shah Kaku at a cost of about Rs 250 million.

He directed the health secretary to ensure provision of kits for blood screening of prisoners in coordination with authorities of prisons department.