ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday ordered a nationwide crackdown on smuggling of essential commodities, including food items, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The decision to launch the clampdown came during a meeting vis-à-vis measures to curb smuggling of daily use items.
1) سمگلنگ کی روک تھام کے لئے وزیرِ اعظم عمران خان کا بڑا فیصلہ
سمگلنگ کے خلاف ملک بھر میں فوری طور پر اور بڑے پیمانے پر کریک ڈاؤن کا حکم#PMImranKhan pic.twitter.com/NLOfA0SE7S— Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) February 18, 2020
The prime minister said smuggling of food items not only results in price hike but causes hardships to the common man, which, he said, is unacceptable at any cost. He noted smuggling is inflicting losses of billions of rupees on the national economy.
He warned that he won’t tolerate any sort of negligence in curbing smuggling, which is a public interest matter.
Federal Minister for National Food Security Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiyar, Planning Minister Asad Umar, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Investment Abdul Razzak Dawood, the secretaries of the interior and national food security, the acting Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the provincial home secretaries and other relevant officials attended the meeting.
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Prime Minister Khan directed the Ministry of Interior, the federal and provincial law enforcement agencies and the FBR to jointly take action against smuggling at once.
The interior ministry was further instructed to furnish a report on the measures that will be taken over next 48 hours and a comprehensive strategy in this regard.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Inter-Services Intelligence and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) are required to submit a report with regard to monitoring of the crackdown without fail.
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They are futher required to submit a progress report on establishment of border markets on the country’s western frontiers.
The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to speed up work on the development of border markets in Balochistan.
