WorldPakistan
A year after Pakistan shut the Afghan border to trade, Peshawar's exporters count the cost
Medicine makers and food traders who relied on Afghanistan and Central Asia have lost most of their business, and the detour through Iran takes six weeks and costs several times more.
Key points
- Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been suspended since October 2025 after deadly border clashes.
- One Peshawar exporter says Afghanistan and Central Asia have fallen from 80 per cent to 5 per cent of his revenue.
- Shipping to Uzbekistan via Iran now costs $10,000 to $13,000, against $2,000 to $3,000 through Torkham.
At the Fedro Pharmaceuticals factory in Hayatabad, on the western edge of Peshawar, the machines are still running. What has changed is where the medicines go. About 70 per cent of what was packed here was meant for Afghanistan and Central Asia, until Pakistan suspended trade with its western neighbour in October 2025 after deadly clashes along the border.
A year on, there is no sign of the crossings reopening, and exporters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa say the halt has cost them dearly.
“When the border got closed, we already had orders. Some of the stock was ready, and some was still in process,” said Junaid Altaf, Fedro’s chief executive. “(Some) packaging was in Persian, in the Afghan language. For Russia and Uzbekistan, the packaging was in Russian. All that packaging got dumped.”
The factory sits about 60 km from Torkham, the main crossing into Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and the gateway for goods heading on to Central Asia. Afghanistan is the largest export market for Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry.
From 80 per cent to 5
Food and farm exporters have been hit just as hard. Manzoor Ellahi, chief executive of MM Ellahi Traders, which sells rice, meat, citrus fruit and potatoes, said Afghanistan and Central Asia once brought in 80 per cent of his company’s revenue. Today the figure is 5 per cent.
“It was shocking, not (only) for me but for everybody who was involved in the Afghanistan and Uzbekistan business, the Peshawar community, labour, customs clearance agents,” he said.
A truck depot in Hayatabad that once handled 40 to 50 lorries a day bound for Afghanistan now stands idle. Traders who still want to reach Central Asia have turned to Iran, a route that runs through Balochistan, where security is poor, and takes close to six weeks.
“Previously, cargo via the Torkham border used to reach Uzbekistan in a week, costing between US$2,000 and US$3,000 in fees. Now, shipping via Iran costs around US$10,000 to US$13,000,” said exporter Muhammad Naeem. “If there is an item that has expired or something has spoiled, the only solution is to trash it.”
Politics over trade
Islamabad says trade will not resume until Afghanistan’s Taliban administration acts against militants it accuses of attacking Pakistan from Afghan soil. Kabul denies harbouring them.
Some economists say the policy is hurting Pakistan more than its target, as the country’s trade gap widens. Vaqar Ahmed, research director at the Partnership for Economic Policy, pointed to India and China, which keep trading despite long-running political and military tensions, and warned that Pakistan needs stronger export earnings to keep its International Monetary Fund programme on track. “If this programme has to be successful, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves need to be augmented,” he said.
Business groups have urged Islamabad and Kabul to settle their differences through talks. For now, the trucks at Torkham are not moving.