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| How can sugar sold in Pakistan for Rs 93 per kg be smuggled to Afghanistan for Rs 193? |
While returning from Panj Pai to Quetta for one of my stories, I saw Levi's pickup truck at a check post. Outside the pick-up truck, an official was placing large white sacks inside the pick-up truck.
When asked, the Levies official said that these sacks contained sugar which was being taken to Afghanistan through Punjab, and after catching it, these sacks are now being taken back to the Quetta headquarters.
In this regard, Pakistani authorities also confirm that Pakistani sugar is being smuggled into Afghanistan.
A current Customs officer had recently confiscated about 112 tonnes of sugar from a train arriving from Quetta to Chagai and sent it back to Quetta due to lack of a permit. Speaking to the BBC, he claimed that according to his estimates, "about 100 tonnes of sugar every other day and about 700 tonnes of sugar a week are being smuggled into Afghanistan from Quetta."
According to the Afghanistan Chambers of Commerce, there are twenty smuggling routes through which sugar and other food items are transported from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Customs duty is not paid on these goods and these buses and trucks reach eight different provinces of Afghanistan through the check posts between the two countries.
How does this sugar reach Afghanistan?
Currently, district Chagai is an important point in Balochistan, from where sugar is smuggled to Afghanistan, but it is not the only point in Balochistan province.
Apart from this, other areas of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan like Chaman, Qila Saifullah, Qila Abdullah, Pashin, and Zhob areas are also included in the smuggling route.
On tracing the smuggling routes, it was found that there is one legal and to some extent illegal route from Pakistan to China.
Explaining this, a government spokesman said that 'the road is used the same way, but where the big vehicles of local traders are allowed to leave after seeing the permit, there is no permit for the illegal truck. '
This permit is issued by the Government of Pakistan to local businessmen and their companies. In which a permit is issued in the name of the owner of the company after checking the identity card and inspecting the business. Under this permit, the trucks carrying the goods under the owner and the drivers driving them are also identified.
Now, as a result of smuggling from Chagai in a few months, Deputy Commissioner Chagai Hussain John Baloch has recently banned the issuance of sugar permits. According to the statement, this ban will continue until all sugar suppliers are registered, but according to traders, there is no such ban in other areas along the border.
The Panj Pai area was used for trade from Afghanistan for a long time, but now this route has been closed by the government, and sugar is now smuggled through here.
Traders and officials say that sugar is first brought to Quetta through Punjab and Sindh and from Quetta to Afghanistan.
According to the people involved in this work, the procedure is that first the sugar is transported to Chagai by bus, car, truck, or train, and then from there it is transported to Afghanistan through the desert region of Dakh.
The train arriving at Chagai mostly goes to the Iranian city of Zahedan, but before that, sugar and other goods are unloaded from it at Nokundi railway station and sent to Afghanistan by small cars and trucks.
The same procedure is used for other areas along the border. Where sugar is smuggled in small vehicles using the desert area, while it is transported to the Chinese border by passenger buses from the cities.
This was realized when it was agreed to go to the Musa Colony bus base in Quetta while doing a report on human trafficking. On one side of this base, there is a crowd of people while on the same base, some buses are apparently standing empty at the back. Here only sacks of sugar were being loaded on the seats of the passenger bus of 42 people.
On seeing us there, the bus driver removed his bus from that place, asking us not to take pictures, but when asked, he definitely told us that this sugar comes from Punjab and Ghotki to Quetta and is sent to Afghanistan along with urea, medicines, and other food items. Is.
A spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce says authorities are aware of many more such buses, but they stop local businessmen traveling legally across the border.
Vice President of Quetta Chambers of Commerce Agha Gul Khilji also confirmed that sugar transportation is being used by some people as a means of illegal business across the border while local traders are suffering.
He said that if the authorities are worried, then tighten their border with Afghanistan. Foodstuffs coming from India or Afghanistan cannot be stopped. It is not an import or export issue. This stuff is for local people.
Why is the Chinese being smuggled to Afghanistan?
After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, there were reports of shortages of many things. One of them was the shortage of sugar which is not ending even after two years.
One way to meet this deficiency where on the one hand was accomplished through Afghanistan's agreements with Pakistan, while a solution was found by smugglers to deliver sugar through illegal channels.
Another important reason for this smuggling is given by the traders the Afghan currency, which currently gives many times better profit than the Pakistani rupee, and the Pakistani smugglers get a double profit from selling sugar in Afghanistan because according to the government price list in Pakistan, sugar is 93 193 rupees per kg in Afghanistan.
According to traders, the profit margin is lower in sending sugar through direct and legal channels.
Haji Azim, a businessman based in Quetta, said that 'tax has to be paid, vehicle rent and drivers have to be paid'.
He said that "illegal smugglers are concerned about taxes, not human lives." By driving them day and night in cars and trucks through dangerous routes, they deliver twice as many goods as government goods to Afghanistan, and in many places, Afghan traders pay the price of smuggled sugar in dollars. So why would anyone adopt the right path?'
Can the government completely stop this illegal smuggling?
Officials say that at present it is hardly possible to stop sugar being sent illegally to Afghanistan, but despite this, on March 1, customs officials managed to stop 112 tons of sugar at Nokundi railway station in the Chagai district.
Deputy Commissioner Chagai Hussain John Baloch said that a major obstacle in the efforts is the lack of resources. Despite this, action is taken wherever the news is received.
Another way is to prevent and tighten the issuance of permits.
A recent example of this was seen in Balochistan's Washuk district, where a deputy commissioner was removed from his post after local people and traders reported to the authorities about allowing around 400 trucks to be seen without permits.
Officials also say that those going to Afghanistan on foot from the Chaman border cannot be stopped if they are accompanied by Chinese.