Man arrested at airport for bid to smuggle foreign currency

Pakistan Customs personnel at Jinnah International Airport claimed to have seized foreign currency worth millions of rupees by foiling a smuggling bid and arrested a suspect on Wednesday.

Syed Irfan Ali, a spokesman for the customs, said customs officials conducted a physical search of a passenger, Muhammad Ahmad Siddique, and found Saudi riyals amounting to Rs3,029,000 cleverly concealed in his clothes. He was travelling to Saudi Arabia by flight PK-743 from Karachi, and the action led to the recovery of 46,605 Saudi riyals.

A case has been registered against the passenger under the customs act. Ali said customs collector Dr Nadeem Memon and additional collector Asadullah Larik had issued special instructions to the officers posted at the airport to play their full role to curb the smuggling of currency and contraband goods.

They told the officials to use all available resources and suppress the elements that harmed the country’s economy. In addition to this, over Rs17 million had been recovered from four passengers in recent smuggling bids foiled by the Pakistan Customs.