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'Samjhota Express becomes smuggling express'

LAHORE: Samjohta Express shuttling between Lahore and New Delhi was virtually turned into Smuggling Express and the smuggled Indian goods pouring in Pakistan has adversely affected the local market.

Smuggling has been taken deep roots for causing a loss of Rs 10 billion per annum to the national exchequer.

These views were expressed by Iftikhar Ali Malik, former vice president FPCCI in a press statement here on Sunday.

He said the business of sale of smuggled goods was booming in the country. Because of apparent encouragement of the government officials every next day a new market is emerged to promote sale of smuggled goods like cloths, electronics and cosmetics.

He called upon the government to take appropriate steps to stop spread of such markets across the country. "The consumers are drifting away from locally-made goods because of price and quality difference," he remarked.

Malik said that Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta became hubs of smuggled goods whereas Lahore was flooded with Indian-made smuggled goods. Anarkali, Delhi Gate and Railway Station markets offer a wide range of variety of Indian-made goods, he added.

Former FPCCI leader also held a view that ban on transit trade with Afghanistan helped Pakistan little. Virtually, it made no difference to the country because all the banned items, such as electronics, crockery, cloths, and cosmetics keep coming to Pakistan.

"The Government instead of putting more and more items on negative list for Afghanistan, should have made serious efforts to root out the smuggling menace," he said. PPI