R 051327Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0937
INFO AMEMBASSY KABUL 
AMCONSUL PESHAWAR 
AMCONSUL LAHORE 
AMCONSUL KARACHI

UNCLAS ISLAMABAD 000025 
 
 
STATE FOR INL/AP, SCA/PB 
JUSTICE FOR OIA, AFMLS, NDDS 
TREASURY FOR FINCEN 
DEA FOR OILS AND OFFICE OF DIVERSION CONTROL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PK
SUBJECT: Pakistan: 2009 INCSR Submission, Part I - Narcotics and 
Chemical Control 
 
REF: 08 STATE 100992 
 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
¶1.  (U) Pakistan is on the frontline of the war against drugs as a 
major transit country for opiates and hashish from and precursor 
chemicals to neighboring Afghanistan.  In 2008, Pakistani forces 
have engaged the militants along the border with Afghanistan, 
particularly in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered 
Tribal Areas (FATA).  Militant groups have challenged the forces 
throughout FATA and are encroaching into the settled areas of the 
North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), such as the Swat valley and the 
settled district of Peshawar, the provincial capital.  The joint 
Narcotics Affairs Section and GOP Narcotics Control Cell poppy 
survey of 2008 indicated that 1,909 hectares (ha) of poppy were 
cultivated in 2008 (about one percent of the cultivation in 
Afghanistan).  Poppy cultivation levels in 2007 were 2,315 ha and in 
2006 1,908 ha.  In 2007, 614 ha were eradicated, bringing harvested 
poppy down to 1,701 ha.  In 2008 there was no eradication because 
both the Frontier Corps and Tribal Levies in FATA were tied down by 
militants.  Nevertheless, despite the lack of the deterrent effect 
of eradication, Pakistan saw a decrease of poppy cultivation in 
¶2008. 
 
¶2.  (U) Civil forces destroyed no opium processing laboratories in 
Pakistan.  The most recent destruction of an opium lab in Pakistan 
occurred in Balochistan in June 2006.  Extensive opium processing 
occurs in Afghanistan adjacent to the Chagai region of Balochistan 
and the Khyber Agency of the NWFP.  Pakistan is a major trafficking 
route for illegal drugs produced in Afghanistan; nonetheless, 
Pakistan claims to have no current evidence indicating the presence 
of opium processing labs on its territory. 
 
¶3.  (U) The UNODC survey of drug use in Pakistan was released in 
2007 and estimated the number of opioid (heroin, morphine, codeine, 
etc.) drug users in Pakistan at 628,000, of whom 484,000 use heroin 
and of those, 125,000 inject drugs intravenously.  Trends indicate a 
substantial rise in the use of cannabis (which continues to maintain 
limited social acceptability), sedatives, and tranquilizers; Ecstasy 
is an emerging trend in higher socio-economic urban youth groups. 
 
¶4.  (U) Statutorily, national counternarcotics efforts are led by 
the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) under the Ministry of Narcotics 
Control.  The U.S. (State Department and DEA) and the international 
donor community have provided millions of dollars in financial 
assistance and training to the ANF to give it modern 
counternarcotics capabilities.  Working with the ANF has also led to 
close partnerships with others in the international drug law 
enforcement community.  Despite the funding and training given to 
Pakistan, there appears to be a systemic lack of willingness to 
exploit investigative leads. 
 
¶5.  (U) The GOP five-year Master Drug Control Plan, promised since 
2006, has languished.  ANF promised to have the Plan issued in early 
2007, but that didn't happen.  A revitalized Ministry of Narcotics 
Control has pursued the Plan since Spring 2008 and it may be 
released in early of 2009. 
 
¶6.  (U) Nevertheless, major counternarcotics interdictions continued 
with promising developments on the Makran coast.  The Frontier Corps 
Baluchistan, the Pakistan Coast Guards, Customs and Excise, and the 
Maritime Security Agency, cooperated with each other to seize some 
40 tons of hashish and hundreds of kilos of opium along the Makran 
coast between January and April 2008.  The Home Departments of the 
NWFP and Baluchistan Provinces also are active in disrupting 
traffickers. 
 
¶7.  (U) In general, overall counternarcotics cooperation between the 
GOP and the United States has solid foundations and a record of 
accomplishment.  U.S. assistance programs in counternarcotics and 
border security continue to strengthen the capacity of law 
enforcement agencies and improve their access to remote areas where 
much of the drug trafficking takes place, evidenced by 11 MT of 
heroin and 15 MT of opium seized in 2007, and in the first half of 
2008 1.5 MT of heroin, 4 MT of morphine base, 77 MT of hashish, and 
11.4 MT of opium. 
 
¶8.  (U) The 1931 US-UK extradition treaty that is in force with 
respect to Pakistan is outmoded.  Pakistan's Extradition Act is also 
in need of modernization.  Extradition to the United States of 
persons charged with narcotics offenses and other crimes continues 
to be delayed for years due to judicial and administrative delays, 
with GOP authorities taking little action to resolve judicial 
delays.  Pakistan is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.  The 
US-Pakistan Joint Working Group on Law Enforcement and 
Counter-Terrorism has met four times; the latest occurred in 
Islamabad as part of the U.S.-Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue in 
August 2008.  The JWG is chaired at the Ministerial level on the 
Pakistan side and Assistant Secretary level on the U.S. side, and 
addresses the effectiveness of U.S. counternarcotics programs in 
Pakistan and other law enforcement cooperation.  END SUMMARY 
 
II. Status of Country 
---------------------- 
¶9.  (U) The GOP is committed to regaining the poppy-free status it 
reached in 2001.  Since then tensions between the GOP and Pakistan's 
tribal populations on the Afghan border have increased.  Small 
cultivators in remote areas tried to exploit this tension by 
resuming poppy cultivation at levels not seen for a decade.  Poppy 
cultivation went from 213 ha in 2001 to 7,571 ha in 2004.  The GOP 
responded with forceful eradication campaigns, destroying 4,400 ha 
in 2004 and reversed the trend in 2005 and 2006, reducing the poppy 
harvest (i.e., after eradication) to 1,549 ha by 2006.  In the 
tribal belt, where militant activity is a continuous threat, 1,847 
ha were cultivated this year, down from 2,315 ha in 2007.  Under 
these circumstances, and given the lack of eradication and 
enforcement capability resulting from deployments of thousands of 
Frontier Corps forces to North and South Waziristan, the net harvest 
of only 1,907 ha (one percent of Afghanistan's 2007 crop) for the 
entire country, demonstrates that the long-standing GOP campaign 
against poppy cultivation is being sustained even when the 
eradication threat does not materialize. 
 
¶10.  (U) Opium production in neighboring Afghanistan continues at 
astronomical levels in excess of world demand but is down from 
2007's all-time high.  Given the huge supply within Afghanistan, 
Pakistan remains a significant transit country of heroin, morphine 
base, opium, and hashish, and is a conduit to Iran, the Arabian 
Peninsula, East Asia, and Africa by land and sea.  The U.S.-funded 
Border Security Project, which began in 2002, is building GOP 
interdiction capabilities along the 1600-kilometer Afghan border, as 
demonstrated by significant drug seizures in 2008 by border security 
forces such as the Frontier Corps Baluchistan.  However, 
successfully interdicting drug shipments is difficult given the vast 
terrain, the sheer number of smuggling routes, the lack of 
resources, scant law enforcement training in reconnaissance and 
combined ground/air operations, and the fact that smugglers keep 
adapting their tactics. 
 
¶11.  (U) Pakistan's position as a major drug transit country has 
fueled domestic addiction, especially in areas of poor economic 
opportunity and physical isolation.  The GOP estimates that they 
have up to four million drug users in the total population of 170 
million.  Accurate figures do not exist but better estimates are now 
available thanks to UNODC's 2006 National Assessment on Problem Drug 
Use in Pakistan.  The study estimated that there were 628,000 (up 
from 500,000 in 2000) chronic opiate abusers and identified a new 
trend of injecting narcotics, which raised concerns about HIV/AIDS. 
The UNODC survey reveals that the number of chronic heroin abusers 
has increased and that the numbers of injecting drug users has 
doubled in the last 6 years from 60,000 to 125,000, with 
implications for hepatitis and HIV infection rates. 
 
¶12.  (U) Pakistan has established a chemical control program that 
should closely monitor the importation of controlled chemicals used 
to manufacture narcotics.  Significant quantities of diverted 
precursor chemicals transit Pakistan, but there is no indication 
that Pakistan is a source country for these precursor chemicals. 
The impressive seizure of 14 MT of acetic anhydride at the port of 
Karachi in March 2008 was not followed up by the investigative 
agency, which failed to develop promising leads.  Some progress has 
been made in determining the routes and methods used by traffickers 
to smuggle chemicals through Pakistan into Afghanistan.  Most Afghan 
labs are in Helmand province near the Baluchistan border or in 
Nangahar near the Khyber Agency in the NWFP.  DEA continues to 
provide Pakistani law enforcement with information regarding 
chemical seizures that may have links with Pakistani smuggling 
groups and/or chemical companies, to facilitate further 
investigation within Pakistan. 
 
III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2008 
------------------------------------------- 
¶13.  (U) Policy Initiatives:  As of the end of 2008, the Drug 
Control Master Plan is still waiting for approval by the Cabinet. 
Publication of the national plan was anticipated in early 2007, and 
delay in its release is a concern.  The plan should identify 
interdiction strategies, agency responsibilities, and inter-agency 
coordination as well as training and equipping requirements for 
attacking drug supply and demand.  The Ministry of Narcotics 
Control, in coordination with UNODC, continues to work on the plan. 
The GOP also seeks to regain "poppy-free" status, which it had 
secured from the United Nations in 2001, by enforcing a strict "no 
tolerance" policy for cultivation.  Federal and provincial 
authorities continue anti-poppy campaigns in both Baluchistan and 
NWFP, informing local and tribal leaders to observe the poppy ban or 
face forced eradication, fines, and arrests.  Security concerns in 
the Khyber Agency, where the majority of Pakistani poppy continues 
to be harvested, prevented full realization of the GOP's goal to be 
"poppy-free" in 2007-2008. 
 
¶14.  (U) ANF is the lead counternarcotics agency in Pakistan.  Other 
law enforcement agencies have counternarcotics mandates, including 
the Frontier Corps Baluchistan (FCB) and Frontier Corps NWFP (FCN), 
the Pakistan Coast Guards, the Maritime Security Agency, the 
Frontier Constabulary (FCONS), the Rangers, Customs and Excise, the 
police, and the Airport Security Force (ASF).  The GOP approved 
significant personnel expansions for the ANF, the FCB and FCN, and 
the FCONS in 2006 and 2007.  The ANF now has over 2000 personnel. 
The Pakistan Coast Guard has started using anti-drug cells (or 
units) to better coordinate and execute counternarcotics operations. 
 
¶15.  (U) Law Enforcement Efforts: In 2007, GOP law enforcement and 
security forces reported seizing 10.9 MT of heroin/morphine and 15.3 
MT of opium.  Also, 93.8 MT of hashish was seized in this time 
period.  As of September 2008, seizures of heroin/morphine base 
total 5.6 MT, 77.5 MT hashish, and 11.4 MT opium. 
 
¶16.  (U) According to the ANF, in 2007, all GOP law enforcement 
authorities reported arresting 50,100 individuals (48,724 cases) on 
drug-related charges for 2007.  The ANF itself had 1,702 cases 
pending, 1,187 from 2006 and 515 new cases through September 2007. 
Of that total there were 301 convictions through October 1, 2007. 
(Figures for 2008 are not yet available).  The great majority of 
narcotics cases that go to trial continue to be uncomplicated drug 
possession cases involving low-level couriers and straightforward 
evidence.  The problematic cases tend to involve more influential, 
wealthier defendants.  To date the ANF continues to prosecute 
appeals in seven long-running cases in the Pakistani legal system 
against major drug traffickers, including Munawar Hussain Manj, 
Sakhi Dost Jan Notazai, Rehmat Shah Afridi, Tasnim Jalal Goraya, 
Haji Muhammad Iqbal Baig, Ashraf Rana, and Muhammad Ayub Khan 
Afridi. 
 
¶17.  (U) Since many strong cases were reversed on appeal, in an 
effort to address those reversals, the ANF has hired its own special 
prosecutors.  The ANF also added additional attorneys as part of its 
expansion.  The DEA continues to advance the concept of conspiracy 
investigations (i.e., active planning with serious intent to commit 
a crime) with the ANF to target major traffickers.  Through 
September 30, 2007, drug traffickers' assets totaling Rs 110.8 
million rupees (about $1.8 million USD) remained frozen. 
 
¶18.  (U) In 2005, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved 1,166 new 
positions for the ANF with the first group of 600 graduating in 
mid-2007.  The GOP also approved an increase of 10,264 personnel for 
the Frontier Corps Baluchistan to increase their capacity along the 
border with Afghanistan and Iran.  In 2000, the DEA vetted and 
funded the ANF Special Investigative Cell (SIC) to target major drug 
trafficking organizations operating in Pakistan.  Each vetted 
investigator undergoes a thorough screening and a five-week training 
course at the DEA training facility in Quantico. 
 
¶19.  (U) Corruption: The United States has no evidence that the GOP 
or any of its senior officials encourage or facilitate the illicit 
production or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or 
other controlled substances or the laundering of proceeds from 
illegal drug transactions.  However, with government salaries low 
and societal and government corruption endemic, it is not surprising 
that some narcotics-related corruption among government employees 
occurs.  The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), a Pakistani 
agency tasked with investigation and prosecution of corruption cases 
(not only narcotics-related), reports that it received 13,722 
complaints of corruption in 2006, of which it investigated 701 cases 
and completed 241 cases.  The investigations resulted in 165 arrest 
warrants and 46 convictions.  NAB recovered Rs.930 million rupees 
(almost $15.5 million) from officials, politicians, and businessmen 
in 2006 through plea bargains and voluntary return arrangements. 
 
¶20.  (U) Agreements and Treaties: Pakistan is a party to the 1988 UN 
Drug Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by the 
1972 Protocol, and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. 
The United States provides counternarcotics and law enforcement 
assistance to Pakistan under a Letter of Agreement (LOA).  This LOA 
provides the terms and funding for cooperation in border security, 
opium poppy eradication, narcotics law enforcement, and drug demand 
reduction efforts.  There is no mutual legal assistance treaty 
between the U.S. and Pakistan, nor does Pakistan have a mutual legal 
assistance law; it has not been helpful with U.S. requests.  The 
U.S. and Pakistan's extradition agreement is carried out under the 
terms of the 1931 U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty, which continued in 
force after Pakistan gained independence in 1947.  Both the 
Extradition Treaty and Pakistan's Extradition Act are outmoded. 
Lack of action by Pakistani authorities and courts on pending 
extradition requests for four drug-related cases continues to be of 
concern to the United States.  Obstacles to extradition include 
inexperience of GOP public prosecutors, an interminable appeals 
process that tolerates defense-delaying tactics, and corruption. 
Pakistan is a party to the UN Convention against Corruption, and has 
signed, but has not yet ratified, the UN Convention on Transnational 
Organized Crime. 
 
¶21.  (U) Cultivation/Production: Through interagency ground 
monitoring and aerial surveys, the GOP and USG confirmed that 
Pakistan's poppy harvest increased by roughly 400 ha.  In 2008, 
Pakistan cultivated 1,907 ha, compared to cultivation of 
approximately 2,315 ha in 2007.  The actual number of hectares 
harvested increased 206 ha to 1,907 due to the inability to mount 
any eradication effort.  Based on the GOP's methodology for 
determining poppy crop yield, which estimates that approximately 25 
kg of opium are produced per hectare of land cultivated, Pakistan's 
potential opium production was approximately 47.6 MT in 2008. 
 
¶22.  (U) Cultivation in the "non-traditional" areas in NWFP remained 
almost completely contained this year, with Kala Dhaka as the only 
trouble spot.  The USG does not fund any application of aerially 
applied herbicides in Pakistan. 
 
¶23.  (U) The NWFP Government struggled this year to contain poppy in 
the FATA agencies where both the Pakistani Army and the FCN are 
combating an aggressive militancy, including elements of al-Qaida. 
FC force concentrations in North and South Waziristan mean that 
there are no troops available to combat poppy cultivation in Khyber, 
Bajaur, and Mohmand, where 1,729 ha of poppy were cultivated. 
Ground monitoring teams continue to observe, particularly in Khyber, 
a trend of increased cultivation within walled compounds to prevent 
eradication. 
 
¶24.  (U) Drug Flow/Transit: Although no exact figure exists for the 
quantity of narcotics flowing across the Pakistan-Afghan border, the 
ANF estimates that 36 percent of illicit opiates exported from 
Afghanistan transit Pakistan en route to Iran, Western Europe, the 
Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, and East Asia.  The 
UNODC's Afghanistan Opium Survey 2008 notes that 157,000 ha of poppy 
were cultivated in 2007.  The total combined cultivation of 350,000 
ha in 2007 and 2008 in Afghanistan almost certainly means more 
opiates transiting Pakistan and probably escalating domestic drug 
use in Pakistan.  The GOP is alert to the possibility that law 
enforcement efforts in Afghanistan could push drug trafficking 
organizations (DTOs) and labs into Pakistan.  Many of the DTOs 
already have cells throughout Pakistan, predominantly in remote 
areas of Baluchistan where there is little or no law enforcement 
presence.  DTOs in Pakistan are still fragmented and decentralized, 
but individuals working in the drug trade often become "specialists" 
in processing, transportation, or money laundering and sometimes act 
as independent contractors for several different criminal 
organizations. 
 
¶25.  (U) Much of the opioid produced in Afghanistan is smuggled 
through Pakistan to more lucrative markets in Iran, the Arabian 
peninsula, and onward to Europe, including Russia and Eastern 
Europe.  The balance goes to the Western Hemisphere and to Southeast 
Asia where it appears to supplement opiate shortfalls in the 
Southeast Asia region.  Couriers intercepted in Pakistan are en 
route to Africa, Nepal, India, Europe, Thailand, China, Bangladesh, 
Sri Lanka, and the Middle East (especially the United Arab Emirates 
(UAE)).  Pakistani law enforcement notes that precursor chemicals 
such as acetic anhydride are most likely smuggled through UAE, 
Central Asia, China, South Korea, and India to Pakistan, then on to 
Afghanistan in mislabeled containers that form part of the Afghan 
transit trade.  Ecstasy, buprenorphine (an opiate adapted for use in 
the treatment of opiate addiction), and other psychotropics are 
smuggled from India, UAE, and Europe for the local Pakistani market. 
 Small amounts of cocaine smuggled into the country by West African 
DTOs have also been seized. 
 
¶26.  (U) Afghan opiates trafficked to Europe and North America enter 
Pakistan's Baluchistan and NWFP Provinces and exit either through 
Iran or Pakistan's Makran coast or through Pakistan's international 
airports.  Customs and ANF report that drugs are being smuggled in 
the cargo holds of dhows to Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United 
Arab Emirates via the Arabian Sea.  Some 40 MT of hashish were 
seized in the spring of 2008 by law enforcement on the Makran coast, 
in cooperation with Joint Task Force 150 in the Persian Gulf. 
Traffickers also transit land routes from Baluchistan to Iran and 
from the tribal agencies of NWFP to Afghanistan for transit through 
Central Asia. 
 
¶27.  (U) In Baluchistan, drug convoys are now smaller, typically two 
to three vehicles with well-armed guards and forward stationed 
scouts, who usually travel under cover of darkness.  Several years 
ago there were seizures of 100-kg shipments, but now traffickers are 
transporting smaller quantities of drugs through multiple couriers, 
both female and male, to reduce the size of seizures and to protect 
their investment.  This is evidenced by the 20-30 kg seizures, which 
are now typical.  Other methods of shipment include inside 
false-sided luggage or concealment within legal objects (such as 
cell phone batteries or carpets), the postal system, or strapped to 
the body and concealed from drug sniffing dogs with special sprays. 
The ANF reports that traffickers frequently change their routes and 
concealment methods to avoid detection.  West African traffickers 
are using more Central Asian, European, and Pakistani nationals as 
couriers.  An increasing number of Pakistani females are being used 
as human couriers through Pakistan's international airports.  In 
2007, the GOP has also detected an increase in narcotics, both opium 
and hashish, traveling through Pakistan to China via airports and 
land routes.  Arrests of couriers traveling via Pakistan to China 
have increased significantly. 
 
¶28.  (U) Demand Reduction: The GOP, in coordination with the UNODC, 
completed a drug use survey, which was published in 2007 and was 
based on data gathered in 2006.  The survey indicates that Pakistan 
has approximately two to three million drug addicts, with around 
628,000 opiate abusers.  The alarming trend from the survey is the 
near doubling of the number of injecting drug users to an estimated 
125,000.  The prevalence of drug-users testing positive for HIV is 
estimated at nearly 11 percent in March 2007, with the city of 
Karachi having the highest prevalence (28 percent).  Eleven percent 
of users reported being infected with hepatitis and 18 percent 
reported being infected with tuberculosis.  With the increased use 
of intravenous drug abuse these diseases have the potential to 
spread rapidly.  The age of first use is 18 years and the initial 
drug of choice is cannabis (hashish); first use of heroin is 22 
years.  Cannabis and heroin are the most widely used drugs, followed 
by opium.  Prescription and synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy are 
gaining popularity among high-income users.  The GOP views addicts 
as victims, not criminals.  Despite the perseverance of a few NGOs 
and the establishment of two GOP model drug treatment and 
rehabilitation centers in Islamabad and Quetta, drug users have 
limited access to effective detoxification and rehabilitation 
services in Pakistan.  The ANF is also tasked with reducing demand 
and increase drug use awareness. 
 
¶29.  (U) In 2008, ANF organized USG-funded seminars for religious 
leaders in each provincial capital.  The USG funded several NGOs in 
their efforts aimed at drug awareness and treatment and 
rehabilitation.  The first such program supports a drug treatment 
center in Peshawar via the Colombo Plan, extending an 
already-successful program with a local NGO.  The second program 
included support to a Karachi-based NGO to set up and operate a drug 
treatment/rehabilitation center and to organize awareness campaigns 
on drug abuse prevention with schools, youth groups, industries/ 
workplaces, and communities.  The USG funds an Islamabad-based NGO 
to provide drug prevention education at primary level.  The USG 
supports outreach/drop-in centers in Karachi and Peshawar via the 
Colombo Plan and one outreach centre in the settled area of NWFP. 
In addition, the USG is collaborating with the UNODC to provide 
financial and technical support to a conference of demand-reduction 
NGOs to be held under the auspices of the Ministry of Narcotics 
Control in Islamabad.  The seminar will provide a forum in which the 
stakeholders can exchange ideas and develop, with the GOP, a focused 
approach to tackling drug abuse. 
 
¶30.  (U) While the GOP appears to have the political will to do more 
in demand reduction, it lacks the human and technical resources and 
an updated, comprehensive strategy.  We expect that the NGO seminar 
cited above will spark an interest in drug abuse issues and help the 
GOP develop a concerted policy plan to address the menace of drug 
abuse. 
 
IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
----------------------------------------- 
¶31.  (U) Policy Initiatives: It is increasingly clear that 
traffickers of hashish and opiates have financial links to the 
insurgents operating on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan 
border.  Drugs from Afghanistan transit Pakistan on their way to 
other parts of the world.  The United States maintains several 
counternarcotics policy objectives in Pakistan that are in sync with 
America's larger goals of defeating insurgency on the Pak-Afghan 
border and preventing terrorist safe-havens in the FATA and 
Baluchistan.  To achieve these objectives the US helps the GOP 
fortify its land borders and seacoast against drug trafficking and 
terrorists, supports expanded regional cooperation, encourages GOP 
efforts to eliminate poppy cultivation, and inhibits further 
cultivation.  The United States is also working to increase the 
interdiction of narcotics from Afghanistan and to destroy DTOs by 
building the capacity of the GOP, as well as expanding demand 
reduction efforts.  USG agencies continue to build GOP cooperation 
in the extradition of narcotics fugitives and to encourage enactment 
of comprehensive money laundering legislation.  The United States is 
also focusing on streamlining Pakistani drug enforcement 
legislation, making it easier for the ANF and other law enforcement 
agencies to prosecute narcotics cases.  The United States presses 
for the reform of law enforcement institutions and encourages 
cooperation among the GOP agencies with counternarcotics 
responsibilities.  Although the ANF is the lead counternarcotics 
agency in Pakistan, the United States also focuses on improving 
anti-smuggling capabilities of law enforcement agencies, including 
the Customs Department, the Frontier Corps, and the National 
Police. 
 
¶32.  (U) Bilateral Cooperation: The United States, through the State 
Department-funded Counternarcotics Program and Border Security 
Project, provides operational support, commodities (e.g., vehicles, 
radios, and body armor), and training to the ANF and other law 
enforcement agencies.  The United States also provides funding for 
demand reduction activities.  Under the Border Security Project, the 
USG has built and refurbished 64 Frontier Corps outposts in 
Baluchistan and NWFP, and another 62 Levy (tribal police force) and 
11 Frontier Constabulary outposts in the NWFP.  Construction of 1423 
km of roads in the border areas of the FATA is complete, and ongoing 
construction of 266 km continues to open up remote areas to law 
enforcement.  Since 1989, the State Department also has funded 
construction of more than 547 km of counternarcotics program roads 
in previously inaccessible areas, facilitating farmer-to-market 
access for legitimate crops while providing authorities access for 
poppy eradication.  The Department has implemented over 971 
development projects to provide water and electricity to remote 
areas and to encourage alternative crops in Bajaur, Mohmand, and 
Khyber Agencies.  Alternative crop programs were extended into Kala 
Dhaka and Kohistan in 2006, where this year seven kilometers of new 
road were completed and 45 kilometers are underway.  A total of $10 
million has been committed to road construction and small 
electrification and irrigation schemes for this 
earthquake-devastated area of NWFP. 
 
¶33.  (U) In September 2008, the new Resident Legal Advisor arrived 
at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.  The RLA will institute training 
for prosecutors in coordination with USAID's Rule of Law efforts. 
The training will develop and improve advocacy skills, 
police-prosecutor cooperation, prosecutorial ethics, and management 
of the prosecutorial function.  This program will be coordinated 
with NAS's police training and assistance to ensure that police 
investigations provide the material needed by prosecutors and that 
the prosecutors communicate their requirements to police. 
 
¶34.  (U) The United States funds a Narcotics Control Cell in the 
FATA Secretariat to help coordinate counternarcotics efforts in the 
tribal areas, where the overwhelming majority of poppy is grown. 
The U.S.-supported Air Wing program operated by the Ministry of 
Interior (MOI) provides significant benefits to counternarcotics 
efforts and also serves to advance our Border Security objectives. 
DEA provides operational assistance and advice to ANF's Special 
Investigative Cell (SIC) to raise investigative standards.  The 
Department of Defense began providing assistance to the Pakistan 
Coast Guards to improve the GOP's counternarcotics capabilities on 
the Makran Coast. 
 
¶35.  (U) The USG-supported Border Security Project continues to make 
progress in strengthening security along Pakistan's Afghan border 
through training to professionalize border forces, provision of 
vehicles and surveillance and communications equipment to improve 
patrolling of the remote border areas, and support for the Air Wing 
to assist in border surveillance and interdiction.  Missions 
included transporting law enforcement forces to raid suspected drug 
compounds and drug processing facilities, poppy surveys, casualty 
evacuations (casevacs) for personnel injured during FC and ANF 
operations, support for law enforcement agencies along the Afghan 
border, and border reconnaissance.  The three fixed-wing Cessna 
Caravans, equipped with FLIR surveillance equipment, executed 132 
operational missions, including surveillance, casevacs, and command 
and control support for large operations. 
 
¶36.  (U) In May 2002 the first meeting took place of the US-Pakistan 
Joint Working Group on Law Enforcement and Counter-Terrorism 
("JWG").  The JWG was established to create a bilateral mechanism to 
address the means of improving cooperative law enforcement efforts, 
assessing the progress on US-funded law enforcement projects in 
Pakistan, and combating terrorism.  The fourth meeting occurred in 
Washington, DC, in April 2006 and the fifth meeting happened in 
Islamabad in August 2008. 
 
¶37.  (U) The Road Ahead: In 2006, the USG launched a five-year, $750 
million FATA Development Strategy to support the Government of 
Pakistan's FATA Sustainable Development Plan (SDP).  It features job 
creation, health, and educational services, institution building, 
infrastructural development, and measures for expanding the local 
economy.  In addition, the U.S. is providing training and equipment 
to the Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary to improve security 
conditions and control of the border in the FATA and NWFP.  State 
INL's historic role in supplanting a poppy-based economy in these 
peripheral areas with alternative development has been instrumental 
in shaping these plans.  This local development also extends the 
writ of the government. 
 
¶38.  (U) The USG allocated $17 million in 2007 to NAS to expand road 
and bridge building activity and programs to upgrade law enforcement 
institutions, such as the Frontier Corps, the Frontier Constabulary, 
and the FATA internal police force (Levies), made up of personnel 
recruited from the tribes in FATA.  An additional $7.2 million was 
allocated in 2007 to NAS for crop control, law enforcement in 
general, and border security training, commodities and 
infrastructure.  NAS will partner with the FATA Secretariat to 
provide training and commodities to the newly raised Levy Forces. 
These initiatives will enhance security throughout the seven FATA 
Agencies, enabling USAID and other developmental efforts to move 
forward. 
 
¶39.  (U) The United States will continue to assist the GOP in its 
nation-wide efforts to eliminate poppy, to build capacity to secure 
its borders, to conduct investigations that dismantle drug 
trafficking organizations, to increase convictions and asset 
forfeitures, and to reduce demand for illicit drugs through enhanced 
prevention, intervention, and treatment programs.  Implementation of 
these strategies will require GOP perseverance in strict enforcement 
of the poppy ban and eradication efforts, development of an 
indigenous drug intelligence capability, improvements in the 
prosecution and resolution of court cases, GOP interagency 
cooperation, more effective use of resources and training, and 
enhanced regional cooperation and information sharing. 
 
¶V. Statistical Tables 
---------------------- 
¶40.  (U) Drug Crop - Opium Poppy 
  a) Cultivation: 2008 - 1,909 ha; 2007 - 2,315 ha; 2006 - 1,908 ha; 
2005 - 3,147 ha; 2004 - 6,600 - 7,500 ha; 2003 - 6,811 ha 
 
  b) Harvested: 2008 - 1,909 ha; 2007 - 1,701 ha; 2006 - 1,545 ha; 
2005 - 2,440 ha; 2004 - 3,145 ha; 2003 - 3,170 ha 
 
  c) Eradication: 2008 - none; 2007 - 614 ha; 2006 - 363 ha; 2005 - 
707 ha; 2004 - 4,426 ha; 2003 - 3,641 ha 
 
  d) Seizures heroin (including morphine base): 2008 - 5.3 MT; 2007 
- 10.9 MT; 2006 - 35.3 MT; Jan-Nov 2005 - 24 MT; 2004 - 24.7 MT; 
2003 - 34 MT 
 
  e) Seizures opium: 2008 - 18.2 MT; 2007 - 15.3 MT; 2006 - 8.0 MT; 
Jan-Nov 2005 - 6.1 MT; 2004 - 2.5 MT; 2003 - 5.4 MT 
 
  f) Seizures hashish: 2008 - 80.6 MT; 2007 - 93.8 MT; 2006 -110.5 
MT; 2005 - 80 MT; 2004 - 136 MT; 2003 - 87.8 MT 
 
  g) Illicit Labs Destroyed: No labs have been destroyed to date. 
 
  h) Arrests (total): 2008 - 31,330; 2007 - 50,100; Jan-Oct 1, 2006 
- 34,170; Jan-Nov 2005 - 33,932; 2004 - 49,186; 2003 - 46,346 
 
  i) Number of Users: No reliable data exists.  The last National 
Survey of Drug Abuse in Pakistan in 1993 estimated 3.01 million drug 
addicts in Pakistan.  We do not have reliable new estimates, but 
most experts believe that the number has grown.  The recent 2006 
UNODC survey estimated 628,000 chronic opiate users. 
 
 
PATTERSON