Pakistan-Afghan border closure costs exporters $177 million a month, business groups warn
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani exporters are losing an estimated Rs50 billion ($177 million) each month due to the continued closure of key border crossings with Afghanistan, business leaders said this week, warning that prolonged disruption could permanently erode Pakistan’s access to Afghan and Central Asian markets.
Pakistan shut several major border crossings with Afghanistan in October 2025 following one of the deadliest military escalations between the two neighbors in recent years. Although a ceasefire was announced on Oct. 19, trade has remained suspended. Before the border closure, bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan was valued at roughly $2 billion a year, making the neighbor one of Pakistan’s major regional trading partners.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office has said repeatedly that border crossings will stay closed until Kabul provides credible, written assurances that it will prevent cross-border militant attacks and act against groups like the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) that Islamabad says operate from safe havens in Afghanistan, whose government denies this.
Business leaders from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the two Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan, say the shutdown has disrupted supply chains, halted exports and undermined Pakistan’s role as a regional trade corridor linking South Asia to Central Asia.
