Iranian oil smuggling in Pakistan is at brisk,after imposition of US sanctions under the connivance of border security. Stunning revelations made by top government officials.It has been revealed that Iranian oil is being smuggled under the patronage of government and with the consent of Irani Government. Senator Shamim Afridi confessed that Chief Secretary Baluchistan allowed him in 2003 to smuggle oil from Iran . Hundreds of people,who are educated by jobless, are forced to do oil smuggling to keep the heart and soul of their families together. Senator Jhanzeb Jamaldini said there was no other business on the border and if this business halted then people may be given arms by someone.Millions of gallons of fuel illegally exit Iran each month—some 26.4 million from Sistan and Baluchestan province alone, according to state media. The government has tried a number of measures to stop the flow, like slashing fuel subsidies, erecting fences and walls along the border, and imposing steep fines on smugglers who get caught. But they don’t address the underlying problems that cause people to smuggle in the first place. "Drought, unemployment, and low fuel prices in Iran are the main cause of fuel smuggling, which has caused most of the youth in this province to perform this risky and lucrative job,"smugglers pump hundreds of gallons of diesel or paraffin oil into plastic tanks in their truck beds. They set off speeding sometimes more than 100 miles an hour up twisting mountain roads, their license plate numbers obscured with cardboard or mud. Some drop the fuel off at the border, letting others load it onto donkeys for the more grueling trek through the mountains of Pakistan.
Despite the bang and the excitement that ensued, we are so tired that we soon fall asleep under the open sky.In the past, for three days in a week, oil would be transported by motorbikes, and for three days by donkeys. For unknown reasons, Iranian authorities do not allow donkeys to smuggle oil any more. But according to Khalo, his arbab’s consignment is still brought by donkeys. That is why he is sure today is not their turn, because these donkeys can only reach there in the darkness of the night.
No one smuggles oil happily. Saleem has children back in Mashkhel. His sole source of income is through oil smuggling, which he has been doing for decades. If the Jodar border remains closed, he is afraid his children, like those of other Zamyad drivers, will suffer the most. “The amount that we are paid is a pittance,” says Saleem. “As the driver of a Zamyad, I am paid 3,000 rupees per trip, while my chhotu is paid 2,000 rupees.”
At the main border point of Jodar, there are Zamyad vehicles all around. From the mountaintop, these vehicles look like crawling ants. From Damag point, oil and diesel is being brought on Iranian pick-up vehicles and motorbikes. Each pick-up carries in the back a plastic tank filled with oil or diesel. The drivers tell me that each plastic tank carries between 37 to 45 barrels of oil or diesel. And each barrel contains 60 litres.
From the Jodar border point, oil is smuggled to the entire Balochistan province, parts of Karachi, parts of southern Punjab and parts of Afghanistan. This is one of the three key points used by Iran and Pakistan to smuggle oil and diesel. The arbabs arrange sale of oil in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country and collect the payments.
Jodar is a town situated at the border of Pakistan and Iran. There is only one village on the
There is also another route these Zamyads follow surreptitiously to enter Jodar, without turning on the headlights of their vehicles in the darkness. Beside the nearby Iranian check-posts, there is an FC cruiser patrolling the route. If a driver gets caught by the FC cruiser, he can be beaten up violently.
Already, there is a long queue of Zamyads which continues to grow overnight. From 6 am to 9 am, these Zamyads are allowed to enter Jodar for only three hours. “A few months back, the FC men would take 4,000 rupees from each Zamyad before allowing them to enter Jodar,” says Imran while stretching out a mat beside his truck. “The FC intelligence got wind of it, we were told. After that, the FC men were strictly prohibited from taking money from Zamyads, which is why they now keep us waiting the whole day at the check-post.”
Back on London Road, we drive 59 more kilometres to Gat, which lies some 52 kilometres away from Naukundi town. From there onwards, we exit London Road and head west. The entire route is now unpaved right up to Jodar; it zigzags for roughly 200 kilometres. “You can only be familiar with these dusty, kutcha and zigzag routes if you are a driver,” Imran says about the experience of driving in this desolate and vast area, replete with dangers and threats.
they usually travel in a convoy comprising of six or seven Zamyads. All these vehicles belong to one arbab (the owner of the vehicles) who is based in Dalbandin and has more than 20 vehicles. The arbab are Baloch on both sides of the Pak-Iran border who are in direct contact with each other. When the Pakistani arbab receives an order through his Iranian counterpart, he sends his Zamyads to the border. The Pakistani arbab can make around 40,000 rupees off one truckful of oil or diesel.
These pick-up vehicles are manufactured by Zamyad Co. in Tehran. These are non-custom paid vehicles. As they are unregistered, there is no official count of their numbers. There are roughly thousands of Zamyad vehicles in Balochistan, each costing lakhs. An old Zamyad can be bought for around 200,000 rupees; for a new one, the price can go up to more than a million. These vehicles are solely used for oil and diesel smuggling in Balochistan, and loaded with blue barrels in the back, they can be easily spotted across the province.
Dalbandin is situated some 340 kilometres from Quetta. In the west, Chagai makes a triangular border with Iran, and in the north, with Afghanistan. The multibillion-dollar projects of Reko Diq and Saindak are situated in the same district.
Despite being known as the museum of minerals in Balochistan, there is gross unemployment and poverty in the area. Although the largest district in the country in terms of area, Chagai is sparsely populated with an official population of only about 226,000. Due to unemployment, Baloch youth, like Khalo, go to the Pakistan-Iran border, in the neighbouring Washuk district, to bring back Iranian oil and diesel. The majority of oil smugglers hail from Dalbandin.
