ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Brigadier (Retd) Ijaz Ahmad Shah yesterday said that Pakistan has taken effective measures for controlling human smuggling by establishing numerous new check posts by law enforcement agencies. He said that intelligence-based operations have also been conducted against those involved in the heinous crime, resulting continuous decline in number of cases.
The minister said this during his meeting with Minister for Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Selmo Cikotic, here, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior.
The minister said that Pakistan was cognizant of the menace of illegal immigration who also brings bad name to the country. He said that not only the government was taking effective steps to control the human smuggling but also creating economic opportunities in the country to eliminate root cause of the problem. He said that most of the cases of illegal immigration emerge out of search for better economic opportunities. The minister emphasized that illegal immigration in most of the cases may be treated humane since their sole objective remains better economic opportunities. He mentioned Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special initiative to boost the housing and construction sector in the country for creating job opportunities. Availability of better economic opportunity will result in return of the illegal immigrants willingly, he added.
Selmo Cikotic while expressing his gratitude to the warm welcome accorded to him by Pakistan said that the signing of agreement between the two countries on illegal immigration will further boost the existing brotherly relations between the two countries. He agreed with the interior minister that such illegal immigrants must be treated humanely since they left their countries mostly in search of better opportunities.
The Minister for Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that Pakistan and Bosnia came close together due to circumstances and Islamic bond. “The Bosnian people and Government rank Pakistan at highest place due to the principled stance it had always taken on a number of issues relating to Bosnia.” He said that Bosnian Government was looking forward to learning from the experience of Pakistan in intelligence, policing and border management since Pakistan has successfully emerged out of challenges on internal and external fronts. Ijaz Shah assured his Bosnian counterpart of all kind of cooperation in this regard.
The Bosnian Minister for Security also invited Federal Minister for Interior for official visit to Sarajevo, which will be worked out by both sides after normalization of the current situation due to second wave of Covid-19.
