Court martial if security men involved in smuggling: Bugti

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Monday any personnel of security forces found involved in cross-border smuggling would be court-martialled.

The government has intensified its crackdown on smugglers involved in transporting commodities and dollars to Afghanistan, especially in the last few months when havoc was wreaked on the already weakening economy.

The crackdown bore fruit as speculation diminished and the rupee recovered sharply against the greenback to become the best-performing currency globally, but analysts fear another round of depreciation as they are sceptical about the long-term effects of administrative measures.

“If I say that security forces were not involved in [smuggling], it would not be right, as the [smuggled] items are transported in trucks, not camels,” Bugti said during a press conference here.

He said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir had told military personnel that whoever would be found involved in illegal cross-border trade would face the music. “Pakistan’s army chief had told his people very clearly: there would not only be court-martials, but those involved in such activities would also be sent to jail,” the security czar added.

Bugti told reporters that the army’s accountability mechanism is not made public and that’s why it was not in the knowledge of masses. “But the army has its own accountability [system], and we have not just seen it in this instance, but post-May-9 scenario as well.”

The caretaker minister said the government was taking action against smugglers and that they were also appreciating law enforcers over their part in the crackdown on people involved in illegal activities. “The state will deal with hawala, hundi, and other illegal activities with an iron fist,” he warned.

The authorities, he said, had recovered 8,000 metric tonnes of sugar, and action was also being taken against petrol pumps for selling substandard fuel.

Bugti said a database was being made of the trucks being used in smuggling. The government strongly discourages the use of hawala and hundi, he said, adding that 168 FIRs [first information reports] have been registered against people involved in the dollar’s illegal trade.

The interior minister, in the same presser, said that if Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) supremo Nawaz Sharif plans to return to the country and partake in politics, it would be “encouraging."

“I am still saying, despite what PMLN leaders have said about me, that Nawaz Sharif is the leader who came back to the country with his daughter; if he was afraid of going to jail, he would not have come back."

The federal minister claimed that the government has to treat every Pakistani citizen in line with the law and the same would be done with Nawaz, the three-time prime minister. Bugti had invited strong criticism from the top PMLN leadership when he said that if Nawaz was not granted bail, then the authorities would arrest the former PM from the airport. After hard-hitting statements from the PMLN leaders, the minister said his “statement was given a political colour out of context. The caretaker government has no political agenda”.