From: Business Recorder
Wait before you light up! The smuggled cigarettes you are buying and
smoking may just be funding one of the biggest crime syndicates in
Pakistan; undermining national security itself. You might shrug this off
as an exaggeration; but it’s not. Let me explain why.
According to most recent estimates, crime in Pakistan has soared
high with no signs of retreat. The number and frequency of terrorist
attacks and other such nefarious criminal activities have increased
dramatically over the past few years; official statistics for which are
further supported by anecdotal evidence and daily media coverage.
Most law enforcement officials agree that much of the growing
organised crime in Pakistan is funded through smuggling. Their preferred
items not arms or drugs, but something much more common; I’m talking
about cigarettes. Hence, the linkage between smuggled smokes, organised
crime, and national security.
In 2009, the ICIJ released an investigative article on how
illicit trade in cigarettes is growing in Pakistan. They reported men
such as Mr XYZ (actual name withheld), who “is considered an angel in
the Khyber Agency region. The illiterate 70-year-old tribal leader
finances construction of water pumps, streets and lighting, builds
mosques and madrassahs, and supports the penniless and widowed. A
one-time notorious drug kingpin who in the 1980s armed the Afghan
Mujahidin at the CIA’s behest, Mr XYZ churns out millions of counterfeit
cigarettes to smuggle across central Asia, China, and Africa, and
splits the proceeds with militants who control the swath of mountainous
borderland, according to Pakistani intelligence and customs officials.”
According to an independent global research agency Euromonitor
International, in the last five years,based on minimum price of
cigarettes, Government of Pakistan lost approximately Rs 100 billion in
taxes through the illegal sale of cigarettes. The street value of these
cigarettes was more than Rs: 150 billion. That’s a lot of money in the
hands of smugglers, organised criminal syndicates, and gang leaders.
