Here’s how booze flows freely in Pak

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan police seizing a trailer loaded with 1300 bottles of hard liquor and 26,284 bottles of wine in Islamabad has revealed how liquor smuggling is an easy job in the country.

The Shalimar Police had busted the consignment, which included bottles of whisky, vodka, beer and wine.

Shalimar Police Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Tahir Alam Khan said that some diplomats were involved in case, but it was really hard to name them as they enjoy diplomatic immunity due to international law.

“It is hard to say that any senior diplomat is involved in the liquor smuggling, but some personnel of certain embassies have close ties with infamous smugglers of Pakistani origin,” The Daily Times quoted Khan, as saying.

“Staff working in the embassies make necessary documents available to the smugglers for the transportation of such items. Since it is hard to screen each and every cargo so police generally opt for monitoring travel documents. Cargo makes a smooth journey from Karachi to the other cities of Pakistan on the basis of legal documents,” he added.

The SSP further said that the officers, who had caught the smugglers were offered lucrative opportunities for not making this matter public.

However, the smugglers could not succeed in their efforts, as the police officials were not ready to compromise their stance, the paper said.

This is not the first time that such consignments have been confiscated by the police.

Smugglers, with the help of foreign missions and other government departments use United Nations Convention on Transit Trade, which gives the right to land-locked countries to transport their goods through bilateral transit trade agreement, it added. (ANI)