ISLAMABAD   -  Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressing satisfaction over the reduction in the smuggling instructed the relevant institutions to accelerate their efforts to purge the country of this menace in total.

The prime minister, chairing a meeting to review the measures for the elimination of smuggling, reiterated that the government would never allow the smugglers to damage the national economy.

He said the government utilized modern technology to curb smuggling and instructed to apprehend the people involved in smuggling, their facilitators and confiscate the transport vehicles used for the purpose.

He also asked the federal Board of Revenue, interior ministry and other relevant departments to improve their coordination and sought a comprehensive strategy to create employment opportunities in the frontier regions.

During the briefing, the prime minister was told that the interior ministry was running a countrywide campaign and effective measures were being taken to curb the smuggling of petroleum products, cigarettes, mobile phones, gold, tea, clothes, commodities, vehicle tires and spare parts.

It was told that web portal to curb the smuggling of urea and sugar had been launched and 54 joint checkposts had been established as per the prime minister’s directives.

A mechanism for identification and mapping of non-custom paid vehicles, and the draft legislation to establish the Pakistan Land Port Authority were in the final stage.

A report on the outcomes of the anti-smuggling drive was also presented in the meeting which said that 212 Afghan transit trade goods at risk of smuggling had been banned and a bank guarantee had been made mandatory for the trade, instead of an insurance guarantee.

It was told that besides essential commodities, the smuggling of petroleum products had also reduced by half and sugar by 80%, besides other eatables.

During the year 2023-24, the smuggling goods worth Rs106 billion were confiscated and the anti-smuggling drive also led to the reduction in hoarding practices.

The participants were also apprised of the action taken against the officers involved in smuggling. It was told that the process to identify the smugglers, their facilitators and transporters was on a fast pace, with the collaboration of NADRA, Excise and other relevant departments.

Federal ministers Jam Kamal Khan, Ahad Khan Cheema, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Attaullah Tarar, Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Dr Musaddik Malik, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Jahanzeb Khan, PM’s Coordinator Rana Ehsan Afzal and provincial chief secretaries attended the meeting.