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An earlier version of this story erroneously stated the volume of monthly losses as $4.5 billion. The error was due to a typing mistake and has since been rectified.
KHYBER: The month-long closure of Torkham border crossing has caused a cumulative loss of over $45 million and another Rs16.5 billion in terms of exports and imports respectively through Pakistan’s trade with Afghanistan.
Sources among official and trading circles told Dawn that Pakistan had already lost over 65 per cent of the Afghan market to Iran, some Central Asian States, Turkiye and even India due to hostile and aggressive trade policies dictated by security issues since the installation of the Taliban regime in Kabul in August 2021.
They said that while big time Pakistan and Afghan exporters had lifted their capital from the export-import business between the two neighbouring countries due to the repeated border closure and a hostile environment for traders and investors, the month-long closure of all border points had seriously dented the confidence of remaining “bunch” of small traders.
