An inter-ministerial huddle on Friday noted with concern that many of the challenges confronting the country were being aggravated by smuggling, mostly on western borders and decided to take robust measures to stop the outflow of foreign currency and critical imported commodities.
The meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, was told that various reports suggest that not only foreign currency but wheat and urea were imported at massive subsidies at the cost of scarce foreign exchange flowing to Afghanistan.
The participants of the meeting were flabbergasted that the smuggling of urea, wheat and currency was happening despite the presence of a large workforce of civil and armed forces and customs and fencing of over 2,500km of borders at the cost of more than Rs50 billion. It was observed that while it was humanely challenging to monitor such a long border yet, this could not be allowed to go on.
Mr Dar directed that all stakeholders should put their acts together in a coordinated manner beyond routine responsibilities in the nation’s interest while keeping in mind the sensitivities across the border.