The Menace of Narco Power in Pakistan

Date01 April 2016
AuthorVeena Kukreja
DOI10.1177/0019556120160204
Published date01 April 2016
Subject MatterArticle
THE
MENACE
OF
NARCO
POWER
IN
PAKISTAN
VEENA
KUKREJA
This article seeks to analyse the menace
of
narco power in
Pakistan.
The
1980s, in the aftermath
of
the Afghan crisis,
witnessed the rise
of
narco
power
in Pakistan. The narco
power, which has assumed the role
of
one
of
the central
pillars
of
the power structure in Pakistan, reveals triangular
linkages and nexus between narcotics and politicians, army
and
!SI, and terrorism. Drug syndicates also run a parallel
economy. The article also takes into account the relationship
between narcotics and civil society to depict the menace
of
drug addiction
and
ethnic violence.
With
their penetration
of
state institutions, economy, and society, the narco barons today
are the most formidable force threatening the governments
authority, political stability,
and
the economic
and
social
equilibrium
of
the society.
DRUG TRAFFICKING/narco trade, one
of
the many scourges gifted
to Pakistan by the Afghan war, acquired a high profile and assumed the
dimensions
of
a full-fledged industry. In the process, it has created a new
stratum in
society-that
of
narco barons or drug lords. They are the new
billionaires, rising from different social and class backgrounds, they now
form a brotherhood. Each runs his own empire, its network reaching almost
every institution
of
the state. They also buy political power. The narco barons
have reached the highest echelons
of
political power. They finance political
parties and a change
of
face at the top does not affect their position. They
run a parallel economy and are capable
of
destabilising any government
if
their business is threatened. The long
ann
of
the law does not reach the
barons
of
the drug world. They are influential politicians, tribal chiefs with
Lashkars (armies) behind them and resourceful press barons. The network
of
the drug empire has gripped Pakistan's society, economy and polity.
The narco barons are among the pillars
of
the power
structur~members
of
the National Assembly, the Senate, Ministers in the Federal and Provincial
Cabinets, with access to the highest offices
in
the land. The political clout
of
the drug barons is manifested by the fact that narco barons are believed

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