Advanced Training Course for the Counter Narcotics Officers of Pakistan
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) jointly with the Siberian Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation organized a training course for fourteen counternarcotic officers of Pakistan. The course, held from 25 September to 6 October 2023, was organized within the UNODC-Russia Partnership on Counter-Narcotics Training for Central Asia and Pakistan.
The training was one in a series of training activities being conducted by the Siberian Law Institute and UNODC for the countries of Central Asia and Pakistan, with three training sessions to be conducted in total in 2023 for 45 law enforcement counternarcotics officers to further enhance their capacity in countering illicit drug trafficking and related transnational organized crime, including through regional and international cooperation.
The importance of this partnership is underlined by the ongoing developments in the region, in particular in Afghanistan, where opiates trafficking continues to pose significant challenges and significant increase in manufacture and seizure of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine is reported, as confirmed by the UNODC World Drug Report 2023 as well as UNODC report titled “Understanding Illegal Methamphetamine Manufacture in Afghanistan” released a few weeks back.
UNODC, in response to the situation in Afghanistan, developed the Strategic Stability Grid (SSG) to address the existing and emerging transnational challenges stemming from drugs, crime and terrorism in and around Afghanistan. The Strategic Stability Grid focuses on strategic responses that translate into concrete and targeted actions. Thus, following the initiation of this strategy, in the course of 2022 alone, UNODC jointly with partners, including, among others, the Russian Federation, conducted 18 national and regional training courses, study visits and mentoring programmes. As a result, more than 200 officials from the Ministries of Interior, Customs, Specialized Counternarcotic Agencies and other law enforcement authorities from Central Asia, Iran and Pakistan were able to improve their knowledge and expertise in addressing illicit drug trafficking.
UNODC Project Coordinator, Fakhrulla Azamov, in his closing remarks expressed appreciation to the Russian Federation for both financial and in-kind contribution to the initiative and expressed hopes to see further achievements of participating Pakistani law enforcement counter narcotics officers following this course in interdicting narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors. He also stressed that UNODC pursues to delivering results that mainstream gender and empower women and girls across its programmes and activities and it is notable that a number of female law enforcement officers from Pakistan were participating in the training session.
UNODC-Russia Partnership on Counter-Narcotics Training for Central Asia and Pakistan is the component of the Sub-Programme 1 on Law Enforcement Cooperation of the Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, and besides the Regional Programme also contributes to the objectives of the UNODC Programme for Central Asia and the Country Programme for Pakistan.