ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister/ Federal Minister for Revenue has said that Pakistan is a fully responsible state committed to the global fight against terror and eradicating the menace of smuggling and money-laundering from its soil and the region.
“Our customs and its standards are on a par with the world and, in some cases, even better than some of the best customs in the region,” he said while speaking to a high-level delegation from US Control and Border Security (EXBS) which met him at his office at FBR House today.
US EXBS Country Director Ms Shelly Atkinson led the US delegation which also included officials from the US Department of Homeland Security and US Embassy in Pakistan, Member Customs FBR Mohammad Zahid Khokhar and other senior officers of FBR were also present.
Haroon Akhtar Khan apprised the delegation, “Our entire system is now fully computerized and we have made some major inroads against smuggling and money laundering by unearthing some substantial cases in recent years”.
The minister also offered to send officers from Pakistan Customs for training to the US to learn from the US experiences and share with them what Pakistan had been able to achieve in modernizing its customs and securing its borders. “We would like this cooperation to be further strengthened and consolidated in intelligence sharing and exchange of resources,” he said.
Haroon Akhtar Khan told the US delegation Pakistan was a much better and equally safer place than what the international media sometimes tended to show it to the outside world. “We have come a long way in our fight against terror, and our success on this front owes to the massive sacrifices of our nation as well as our military and paramilitary officers and soldiers who have laid down their lives in stamping out the forces of evil from our soil,” he added.
He also briefed the US delegation on the state of Pakistan economy which, he said, was in a good shape and certainly much better than it was a few years ago. “Our democratic experience is going very well and the second democratic government is now on the verge of completing its full five-year term which shows the strength of our democratic institutions,” he said.
Shelly Atkinson thanked the Minister and the FBR for giving her and her colleagues valuable insights into the working of Pakistan Customs which, she conceded, had been excelling in many areas and doing far better than some of the countries in the region. “We look forward to benefiting from the Pakistani experiences by engaging one or two Pakistani instructors to be part of the learning and capacity-building programmes in the US Department of Homeland Security,” she said.
Published in Daily Times, January 21st 2018.