ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah has said that smuggling is one of the most important problems being faced by the country.
“This problem is eating the foundation of our country’s economy and over the years the damage has amassed to enormous proportions,” he said this while chairing a meeting of Anti-smuggling Steering Committee along with Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs, Ali Zaidi.
He lamented that for the past seventy years the menace is present with full might and no one paid any heed to correct it.
Ali Zaidi presented a detailed briefing in which he told about the coordination mechanism among the customs, civil armed forces, law enforcement agencies in the area of anti-smuggling operations and developing synergy at policy and operational level.
He further said that billions of dollars of loss is being caused by smuggling that is being done via sea.
As a remedy, he presented a proposal to digitize trade and smuggling data.
Shah said that contact between federal and provincial agencies should be exemplary and they should also devise a plan to closely monitor the sea route. We should aim for $ 1 billion worth of export of fisheries, he added.