TC 10:00:00

Soldiers of paramilitary Frontier Corps on hilltop surveying the Nihaq valley

There is no mistaking the Pakistani government's commitment to eradication of poppy in the North West Frontier Province.  This is the latest phase of their highly successful eradication programme.

TC 10:00:13

Pan from soldiers on hilltop across Nihaq valley

Their mission -  to destroy 3000 acres of  remaining poppy here in the Nihaq and Osherai valleys.  The last major area of poppy growing in the country.

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Poppies in field

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Convoy

Three thousand men from the paramilitary Frontier Corps have been brought in for this four week operation.

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Harvesting

The farmers are harvesting what might be their last raw opium.

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Pan along big gun

It's a volatile area and the military seem willing to go to war to ensure they are not deflected from their aim by the farmers who have cultivated poppy on these terraces for generations.

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Elders arguing amongst themselves in room

These people are ferociously independent, a law unto themselves.  But in the Assistant Commissioner’s office the local elders are divided about the government policy. 

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One of the elders talking to the others

Translation (Pashtu):

“All of us young and old had decided that we would harvest the opium and that the harvest would be supervised by the police and the commissioners.”

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Elders

But there's little these people can do about it.  The Pakistan government has been bullied into compliance by the United Nations withholding development grants until the project was complete.

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Men bashing poppy plants with sticks in field

The Pakistani eradication programme is the most successful in the world. Production has been reduced from 800 tons a year to under 40.  This operation in the Nihaq valley should  complete the job.

But the effect on the small farmers is devastating.  Each of them stands to lose around 30 kilos of raw opium and at 3000 rupees per kilo that works out at 1800 US dollars per family.

TC 10:01:56

ASTON: Jamsheed Ali Khan

Young Opium Farmer

Translation (from Pashtu):

“Look what the government's done to us. They've destroyed the crop just when it's ripe for harvest. A crop we've worked hard and taken loans for. What shall we do now?  We'll have to turn to crime, we'll do bomb blasts. The government has put the money into its own pockets and destroyed our crops and the government’s taken the money.”

TC 10:02:18

Tilt down to poppy plant in boy’s hand and then to crushed poppy plants

There's no compensation, just promises of future development for alternative crops.

TC 10:02:26

Sewer - smokey from burning heroin

But in places like the sewers of Rawalpindi a gruesome parallel story is revealed.  It throws a new light on Pakistan's successful drug story. 

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Candle

CU’s addicts (men) in sewer chasing the dragon  (taking heroin)

The shattering irony of the last 15 years of successful eradication is that in the same time Pakistan has turned from being a nation of almost no users of heroin  to the country with the most heroin users in the world.

It's a bitter reward.

Whilst the UN and the Pakistani government may have eradicated Pakistan’s own opium production, these men are chasing the dragon with heroin smuggled in from neighbouring Afghanistan.

In Pakistan today there are 3.2 million drug users, two million of whom use heroin - that's a quarter of the number world-wide

TC 10:03:21

Shots of men taking heroin

The human misery and social disintegration that come with it are impossible to counter by this poor nation alone.

The international community appears to ignore the devastation in Pakistan itself; caring only about how the drug production in Pakistan feeds the drug problems in their own countries.

TC 10:03:39

ASTON: Tariq Zafar

Founder of Nai Zindigi (‘New Life’) Detoxification Centre

English:

“Everybody’s interested that the problem of drugs should be contained within Pakistan and not exported out to Germany or out to the West or out to the US.  Talk about drug problems being a global problem but only addressing the trafficking issue as global and not the rehabilitation issue as global.”

TC 10:04:01

Anjum Hussein with other men chasing the dragon

Anjum Hussein is one of Pakistan’s many heroin addicts.  But he's trying to quit.

He's 30 years old and he's been an addict for 11 years, but he tells me this is his last ever heroin fix.  His addiction has ruined his life and that of his family as well, it's a story that's echoed across Pakistan.

TC 10:04:22

ASTON: Anjum Hussein But

Drug Addict

Translation (from Punjabi):

(out of vision at start)

“I realise that due to this addiction I have damaged my two homes. My son is suffering and I also have two sisters. I am the only son in my family. My father is now old. I am unable to earn money for myself or for my parents.”

TC 10:04:44

Exterior of Anjum’s family home

Anjum lives with his middle class family in the Rajah Bazaar in Rawalpindi. 

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Anjum’s sister in family kitchen

No member of his family has been left untouched by his addiction.  As a young man of working age he should be providing for them. Instead he is leaching money out.

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Anjum’s sisters

His youngest sister, Momnia, had to leave school at the age of 11 and his sister Tania had to sacrifice her opportunity of going to university. 

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Ceiling fan - tilt down to family sitting around low table talking

Anjum stole so much money from his father that eventually his auto-parts business had to fold.  The family are at their wits end.

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Amjad Hussein But, Anjum’s Father

Talking to Anjum

Translation (from Punjabi):

“When your sisters slept you stole lockets and bangles from them, you have done so many bad things that now all we have is this house.”

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Anjum with family

But Anjum has good news.  He's been accepted at a detoxification centre and is determined to change his life.

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Anjum in two shot with mother

Anjum talking to his mother

Translation (from Punjabi)

“I will become OK now, God willing.”

TC 10:05:29

Bano Hussein But, Anjum’s Mother

Talking to Anjum

Translation (from Punjabi):

“You always were a good boy when you were in your right senses.”

TC 10:05:35

Amjad Hussein But, Anjum’s Father

Talking to Anjum

Translation (from Punjabi):

“You are going to have to start a new life otherwise don’t try to show your face here again... die where you die but don’t show your face here again.  If Allah forgives you and gives you another chance I too will forgive you.”

TC 10:05:47

Anjum getting ready to leave and saying goodbye to his family

Anjum knows it's his last chance. 

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Anjum hugging his mother - saying goodbye to his family

Across Pakistan it's estimated that 35 million people are affected by young men who should be bread-winners for their families but they fall victim to drugs.

TC 10:06:09

Exterior shots of Nai Zindigi Detoxification Centre (near Islamabad)

Interior - offices, Tariq Zafar in office

This is the Nai Zindigi Detoxification Centre where Anjum is coming for treatment.  It's an independent charity founded by Tariq Zafar, on the left, an ex-addict and run solely by former addicts.  It boasts the most successful treatment in Pakistan.

Zafar says he founded Nai Zindigi after his own experience of the dismal provision for addicts in the country.

TC 10:06:32

Sync. Tariq Zafar

Founder of Nai Zindigi (‘New Life’) Detoxification Centre

English:

“For these 3.2 million people we have 204 places in the country. (Voice overlaid over shots of patients in beds [at Punjabi Centre mental hospital in Lahore] to end of sync.) The quality of services they offer are very very basic, very very primary. And that results in just expense without any result.  And you have this massive figure of , 98 point.... God knows... (point) 9% relapse rate of the clients.”

TC 10:07:00

Punjabi Centre in Lahore (Mental Hospital)

Man in bed coughing, men watching television

In this government hospital virtually no addicts are cured.

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Punjabi Centre

In this mental hospital addicts are locked up side by side with seriously mentally ill patients. The detoxification process is harsh and there is virtually no rehabilitation afterwards.

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Detoxification Patient pleading

This man was begging me to get him out.  It's difficult to tell but it appeared that the treatment he was getting was brutish.

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Sync. Detoxification Patient (No Aston) (same patient featured before)

Translation (from Urdu):

“Tell those people not to beat me with the gun. I'd rather take poison. For God's sake just give me poison instead.”

TC 10:07:35

Same detoxification patient being hit as he is taken out of room in hospital

TC 10:07:41

Man lying on street covered in flies

But most never make it to hospital and end up on the streets.  For them the future holds no hope.

TC 10:07:54

Badshahi Mosque in Lahore

Addicts sitting around outside smoking

In the shadow of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore the addicts who have hit the very bottom hang out.  They are outcasts from society.  Like so many others, Mohammad Arshad's family couldn't afford to pay for medication to combat his heroin addiction but in desperation they created a home grown solution.

TC 10:08:15

ASTON: Mohammad Arshad

Drug Addict

Translation (from Punjabi):

“They put me on a bed encircling a chain around it with my arms and legs tied to it then they put a Chinese lock on it.  Though I had freedom to eat I could not escape, the chains weighed 10 or 15 kilos. I would ask them to release me but they said I'd only use drugs again.”

TC 10:08:35

Needle, injecting heroin

In the end he escaped stealing the only money his family had.  Now he mainlines heroin on the streets risking infection by HIV.  He steals to fund his addiction.  With little treatment and no money the only option for Mohammad and thousands like him is to turn to crime.

TC 10:08:52

Sunc. Tariq Zafar

Founder of Nai Zindigi (‘New Life’) Detoxification Centre

English:

“A few years ago I used to focus on the numbers.  I don't focus on the numbers anymore.  I focus on where this is going and where this is going is it's going to create massive problems, massive chaos and massive destruction if it's not managed.  (voice laid over pictures).   We've just seen the tip of the iceberg. The problem is going to explode.  You want to recruit terrorists, you go to any of these parts, you pick them up, you pay them with heroin.  (Tariq Zafar in vision again).  So organised crime which is almost non-existent in the drugs subculture yet  will also come.”

TC 10:09:31

Rural scenes, labourers harvesting wheat

But there's another level to the drugs story in Pakistan which is more dangerous still.

This is the Punjab, feudal heartland and bread basket of Pakistan.

These men are day labourers harvesting wheat.  While 70% of Pakistan's population live in rural areas, most have no land of their own and work as labourers.

This is a feudal system, a barter economy.  At the end of the day Pakistani workers can be paid in food, sometimes with clothing.

TC 10:10:04

Foreman paying workers with heroin

But here the Chowkidar’s foreman pays his workers with heroin for their days labour. (Note: Chowkidar literally means ‘boss’ here means landlord or landlord’s right hand man.)

This extraordinary scene has never been filmed before. Yet for the workers it seems quite normal.

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O/V until TC 10:10:25

Labourer (no Aston for his security) Translation (from Punjabi):

“I do whatever the landlord tells me. If he asks me to cut and pile hay I cut and pile hay, if he asks me to feed animals I do it. Whatever we do its for drugs. We do whatever the landlord tells us to do.”

TC 10:10:45

Labourers chasing the dragon

The landlords are a key part of the ruling class of Pakistan. The implications of this kind of exploitation of heroin abuse are frightening.  It’s eating its way into the very fabric of the rural economy.  Becoming an accepted part of the exchange of goods and services.

It's unclear how widespread this practice is so far.  But according to these workers it's common.

TC 10:11:08

Labourer (same labourer as above) (no Aston for his security)

Translation (from Punjabi):

“There are also other landlords who have people who work for them and give them drugs as well as food.”

TC 10:11:24

Labourers walking

There has been a radical change in the drug culture of Pakistan.  Already there is an estimated 12% increase in the number of heroin users every year.

And now, an increasing number of people in Pakistan say the United Nations and the West have failed the country and should completely reassess their global drug strategy.

TC 10:11:44

Sync. Tariq Zafar

Founder of Nai Zindigi Detoxification Centre

“The UN very proudly says that we had God knows how many hundreds of hectors, and now we have so many few hectors of poppy but can’t they put two and two together. You’ve reduced the number of acres in the North West Frontier Province, but you have a larger number of addicts, so don’t you see it’s not connected with how many poppies are grown and how many number of people are going to use.”

TC 10:12:09

UNDCP office

At the United Nations Drug Control Programme they insist their eradication policy is essential to ultimately cutting demand.  They acknowledge that there has been a phenomenal rise in consumption here and that not enough has been done, yet they appear to put the onus firmly on the Pakistanis themselves.

TC 10:12:28 

ASTON: Gary Lewis

Regional Representative, UNDCP, Islamabad

English:

“Right now, what is required, is a serious and massive mobilisation of civil society in Pakistan to deal with this problem.  That means, major businesses, that means community organisations, that means parents and schools all to try to recognise the symptoms of this problem and deal with it. Unfortunately not enough is being done, and that is clear.”

TC 10:12:50

Nai Zindigi Centre

At the Nai Zindigi Centre Anjum Hussein is settling in for his detoxification regime.  It's only day two, already it's hard.

This is the best treatment available in Pakistan.  Nai Zindigi has a 50% success rate in treating its clients, but there are only 50 beds.  If Pakistan is to get anywhere in treating it's army of addicts it is going to need a huge injection of resources from the West.  Like Anjum himself Pakistan can't hope for recovery without a helping hand.

TC 10:13:26

Sync Anjum Hussein

Drug Addict

Translation (from Punjabi):

“If I find a good environment and if I get some help, if there is somebody to take my hand and  to show me the way, then I could look after my two sisters, mother and my father and my son.”

TC 10:13:29

Man in bed next to Anjum’s

Anjum may be lucky, but in the next bed, his room-mate was not to survive the treatment.

As the international community sits down in New York to debate global drug policy, some ask,  is it not time to put rehabilitation for addicts in desperately poor countries at the top of the agenda.

Martin Adler for Insight News Television, Pakistan.

TC 10:13:58 ENDS

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