Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and Customs Enforcement, acting on secret information, conducted a joint operation and recovered a large quantity of smuggled betel nut and cigarettes from Karachi’s Jodia Bazaar. The seized betel nut and cigarettes had been hidden inside warehouses and shops. According to Pakistan Rangers Sindh, operations will continue until smuggling is completely eradicated.
The recovered items were handed over to Customs officials for further legal action, transported via three Mazda trucks and a Shehzore vehicle.
On the other hand, when Trade News contacted trader leader Iqbal Bhai for comment, he stated that during recent Customs actions, legally imported betel nut and cigarettes—with valid goods declarations and all required documents—were also seized. He added that not all of Jodia Bazaar is selling smuggled betel nut and cigarettes. Many shops have been operating for the last 50 years, run by Karachi-born business families whose next generations are now legally running businesses there. He said Karachi’s Jodia Bazaar, which plays a backbone role in Pakistan’s economy, cannot bear the financial pressure created by such operations.
Iqbal Bhai further stated that traders have been running their businesses despite years of extortion, robberies, kidnappings for ransom, dacoities, load-shedding, infrastructure collapse, theft, snatching, and harassment by transport mafia, police, traffic police, and municipal departments. Despite these sacrifices, late-night raids have now become intolerable. He appealed to the Chief of Defence Forces, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to restrain Customs officers who are “oppressing traders in the name of anti-smuggling,” and said Customs personnel should first verify whether the goods they are seizing are illegal or legal.
He added that people are already reluctant to do business in the country, and those who are still doing so are performing nothing less than a jihad. He urged the Apex Committee and committees formed by Asim Munir for trade promotion to contact him so traders—especially in Karachi—can operate without fear. He said he is willing to play his part in increasing the currently minimal investment and will continue to highlight right and wrong for the sake of Allah.
He emphasized that instead of conducting raids in Jodia Bazaar over betel nut and cigarettes, Customs should first block the specific routes through which betel nut is transported from Indonesia into Pakistan—routes that, he claims, are protected in exchange for heavy bribes, causing irreparable damage to the economy. All ground realities are known to him, he said, including how smuggled goods are transported to markets across Pakistan through such bribery-backed routes.
He concluded by saying that Customs should focus on stopping smuggling at its source and avoid harassing traders of Jodia Bazaar, which is a major market and a backbone of the national economy, otherwise traders will be forced to leave the country.
