By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister (PM) Anwaarul Haq Kakar has directed the customs authorities and law enforcement agencies to strictly curb the smuggling of sugar, petroleum products, urea, agricultural products and other items.
The caretaker premier issued the directives while chairing a high-level meeting regarding smuggling control in border areas.
Caretaker Federal Minister for Trade Gohar Ejaz, Minister for Interior Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, Minister for Petroleum Muhammad Ali, Advisor to the PM Ahmed Cheema, federal secretaries, Federal Board of Revenue chairman and high level officers of law enforcement agencies attended the meeting.
During the meeting, PM Kakar was briefed on the situation of smuggling of different items across the country, especially in the border areas, and about the steps taken for stopping the menace.
The meeting was told that 10 additional check posts of law enforcement agencies were notified to curb smuggling in Balochistan.
The caretaker prime minister instructed that an inter agency report should be prepared about the officers involved in smuggling in the province.
He directed strong departmental action against the officers involved in smuggling in Balochistan and award of exemplary punishment to them.
The premier further said the smuggling of petroleum products was reducing revenue and putting pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
PM Anwaarul Haq Kakar also said he would chair a weekly meeting to review the performance of institutions and to curb the menace of smuggling.
He ordered that the border markets with Iran should be made more viable so that trade could be done with proper documents.
He said smuggling was causing a loss of billions of rupees to the national economy and it was critical to end the problem of smuggling.
The prime minister was told that smuggling was reduced by 40 percent due to the untiring efforts of law enforcement institutions. He was apprised of the strategy of the law enforcement departments against smuggling.
