Opinion | Pakistan: The Dopamine Nation

Dr G Shreekumar Menon

Drugged-up Pakistan, with more than six million drug users and rising, is assiduously creating a narcotics-trade whirlpool, pulling countless youngsters into its orbit

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“Dopamine Nation – Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence" is a book by Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford psychiatrist, about how the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain, and how to restore balance in an era of instant gratification. This title has been adapted for this article as it aptly describes Pakistan, a nation that has relentlessly pursued terrorism, including narco-terrorism, money laundering and arms trafficking as though these were national industries.

The country has groomed and launched a galaxy of notorious drug traffickers, including some Indian nationals.

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Leading the pack is Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, an Indian gangster, mob boss, drug lord and narco-terrorist. He is the leader of the organised crime syndicate D-Company, which he founded in Mumbai in the 1970s. He was designated a global terrorist by the United States in 2003 and is also subject to sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. He is accused of masterminding the 1993 Bombay bombings and is also alleged to have had a hand in the 26/11 attacks. The United States has fixed a bounty of US$25 million on his head. He has been reported to be hiding in Karachi, but the government of Pakistan denies it. There are unconfirmed reports about his death as well.

Mohammad Salim Dola, the 59-year-old drug-trafficking mastermind, is reportedly an associate of gangster Dawood Ibrahim. He used the name ‘Hamza’ to mask his identity while living in Turkey. The name Hamza appeared on his Bulgarian passport, which he used while residing in Turkey. Salim Dola is an Indian national from Mumbai, who is alleged to have operated transnationally, with reported connections to Pakistan. Over the years, Dola is said to have established a major transnational drug-trafficking syndicate spanning several countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. His two-decade-long criminal antecedents include direct involvement in cases involving multiple high-value seizures of heroin, charas, mephedrone, mandrax and methamphetamine in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Salim Dola’s role consistently emerged as that of a bulk supplier to downstream distribution networks in India. His son, Tahil Salim Dola, and other associates were arrested by Mumbai Police after being deported or extradited from the UAE in 2025.

Muhammed Asif Hafeez, the ‘polo-loving drug lord’, was a global businessman and ambassador of a prestigious London polo club, where he rubbed shoulders with the British elite, including members of the Royal Family.

Hafeez was described by US officials as “one of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers".

He was the master of a vast drugs empire, supplying many tonnes of heroin, methamphetamine and hashish from bases in Pakistan and India, for distribution across the world. His status in the underworld earned him the moniker “the Sultan". Following a complex joint operation between the British and American authorities, Hafeez, 66, was extradited from the UK in 2023. He was arrested in London during a 2017 DEA sting operation, extradited to the US in 2023, and sentenced to 16 years in a New York federal prison.

1.Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is........

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