The menace of smuggling has social, moral, and economic repercussions with a greater debilitating impact on the economy. It undermines the local industry of the country in a negative way, leading to tax evasion and loss of revenue to the government besides promoting crimes. Smuggling is a universal phenomenon. According to the World Economic Forum smuggling creates an annual drain on the global economy to the tune of $2.2 trillion.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, according to a study jointly carried out by economists of Harvard University and the Ministry of Commerce in 2020, smuggled goods have penetrated several sectors of Pakistan’s economy accounting for $3.3 billion. The report revealed that a staggering 74% of cell phones sold in Pakistan were smuggled into the country. When it came to vehicles, 53% of diesel, 43% of engine oil, 40% of tyres and 16% of auto parts sold in the country were smuggled. Similarly, a significant chunk of textiles - 300,000 tonnes to be precise - were also smuggled into Pakistan. Pakistan produced 2.7 million tonnes of textile goods annually and legally imported another 2 million tonnes, which it exported leaving a gap of 1.7 million tonnes in its local demand which was also a factor in the smuggling of textile goods.
Most of the smuggling of these goods is carried out through borders with Iran and Afghanistan. The smuggling of Iranian diesel into Pakistan, according to the relevant quarters, has increased by 35 per cent causing a decrease of 40 per cent in domestic sales. The usage of smuggled diesel is causing a monthly loss of Rs.10.2 billion. The result is that some local refineries are operating far below their capacity.
The Afghan transit route is also a major source of smuggling goods, narcotics and arms into Pakistan which has already spurred the incidents of terrorism and attacks on our security installations. Not only the commodities are smuggled into Pakistan, but sugar, flour and dollars are smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan
The painful aspect of the problem is that government functionaries are supposed to check smuggling and some security personnel manning the border check posts are also reportedly involved in facilitating this anti-Pakistan activity and the money earned is shared with the high-ups also. Some political elements are either directly involved or are guilty of backing this clandestine business. It is a painful reality that this filthy business has been going on for decades, but no government ever made a serious effort to deal with the phenomenon due to political expeditions. Before proceeding further, I would like to make a revelation that corroborates the involvement of government functionaries in smuggling. I was posted as Director of Public Relations, Press Information Department Quetta during 1987-88. Chief of IB Balochistan (late) Malik Rauf who also belonged to Rawalpindi was a good friend of mine. He once told me that the DIG of a special branch was involved in the smuggling of arms to Karachi. The arms were brought from Afghanistan and sent over to its desired destination in his official car. According to him, he reported it to the concerned quarters, but nothing happened and after some time the same man was promoted to the rank of IG and posted to Karachi. What a reward for undermining the interest of Pakistan!
But as they say, where there is a will there is a way. He has warned that the government would not spare anybody found involved in smuggling and carrying out illegal business. He has also warned that the security personnel posted on borders that if found conniving with other functionaries in encouraging smuggling, they would be court-martialed.
The crackdown against smugglers and those involved in other illegal activities has already started showing dividends. The decline in the value of the dollar against the rupee because of the crackdown against smugglers of dollars and money exchange companies tells the story. The Caretaker Minister for Interior Sarfraz Bugti told the media that the government had recovered 8000 metric tons of sugar besides acting against people involved in Hawala and Hundi adding that 168 FIRs had been registered against people involved in the illegal trade of dollars.
However, there is a need to reform the surveillance system on the borders and use modern technologies to detect smuggling besides strengthening the anti-smuggling infrastructure. On top of that, there is also an imperative need to launch diplomatic initiatives to enlist the support of Afghan and Iranian governments without which it is difficult to control this phenomenon
