 | | INCLUSION
"Life in jail was very difficult"
Vast areas of Pakistan's land are devoted to opium poppy cultivation. Many locals are involved in heroin and morphine manufacturing.
Neighbouring Afghanistan is responsible for a large proportion of the world's entire opium production.
The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) estimates that in 2000, Afghanistan produced 3,276 tonnes of opium, out of a worldwide total of 4,691 tonnes.
Recently it has been revealed by some groups working for children's rights that an increasing number of children in Pakistan, are accused of crimes, often involving drug-trafficking, and jailed without being charged.
These are destitute children; vulnerable to exploitation and all forms of abuse.
An Amnesty International report on Pakistan, published in 2001, describes how two young boys were never charged with a crime. They were discovered in a police station in Hyderabad by High Court officials.
The report said, "... they had been held without charge since 14 September and that police had demanded money for their release... No action was known to be taken against the police officers involved."
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says children should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Article 40 of the Convention says, "Every child... accused of having infringed the penal law has... the following guarantees... to be informed... of the charges against him or her... and to have legal... assistance in the preparation and presentation of his or her defense."
In a separate case, Main, now 15-years-old, and Ajmal, both Afghan refugee boys, were accused of drug-trafficking in Peshawar, near the Afghan border, and arrested.
This is Main's account of how police discovered heroin in his shoes and sent him to jail: | |  Listen to Main and Ajmal's story in Pashto | | 
I was going back from school to my home.
On the road side a shopkeeper said "hello" to me and then offered me some money for taking a pair of shoes to Lahore. He said to me, "don't worry. There is no problem on the road to Lahore."
Then he persuaded me by saying that since I didn't have any money he would give me some. The shopkeeper insisted "nobody can check you. No one will doubt that something is hidden in your shoes," and then he suggested [I] wear the shoes.
However, when I reached the Attock checkpoint, the police ordered me to take off my shoes and they recovered heroin from them. [Attock is the police and customs checkpoint on the river Indus, which separates the northwest frontier province from Punjab].
I was sent to Attock jail. 
Peshawar is the centre for smuggled goods from Afghanistan, which are later transferred to the major cities in Punjab and Sind provinces of Pakistan.
The border town is adjacent to tribal areas, and some traffickers use the city for smuggling goods to major cities like Rawalipindi, Lahore and Karachi. The illegal imports may eventually find their way to Europe and the Middle East.
Ajmal was also arrested by the police and held in a jail for months.
This is Ajmal's recollection of his arrest:
It was just before Eid [a Muslim festival of celebration].
I was returning home from school when a shopkeeper on the outskirts of Peshawar persuaded me to take some shoes to Lahore. He assured me that no one can touch me on the road to Lahore. I agreed because my pocket was empty and Rs.3000 (about $45) was big money for me.
He handed over two kilos of heroin to me. The powder were concealed in plastic shoes and then sewed by machine.
There were three other children with me, who had come from school.
We started our journey but were soon arrested by the police and then sent to Attock jail.
Life in jail was very difficult. We informed our families but they were helpless to release us.
But God was merciful and a human rights organisation arranged my release. Otherwise I was never expecting to see the light outside of the jail [again]. | | | Listen to Main and Ajmal's story in Pashto | | |  |  |
 Drug addiction in Pakistan is a very serious problem. The country has almost four million drug addicts; amongst the world's highest figures for number of addicts per nation.
In 2001, a court in Pakistan sentenced three people to death and another to life imprisonment on charges of drugs trafficking.
Since 1998, more than thirty people have been sentenced to death in Pakistan on drugs charges.
No one, however, has been executed. Most still have appeals pending.
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