Economic Strain Deepens as Afghanistan- Pakistan Torkham Border Crossing Stays Shut
By Nasir Aijaz
The AsiaN Representative
ISLAMABAD: Due to the tension between the Pakistan and Afghanistan forces, the main commercial passage at Torkham remains shut to all kinds of commercial movement and pedestrian traffic for the second day. The border closure for the second day is causing daily losses of millions of rupees in revenue for both countries.
The passage is the most active crossing point between the two countries for the transport of goods, connecting Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
For landlocked Afghanistan, Torkham is the primary corridor for its transit trade, allowing access to Pakistan’s major ports, including Karachi and Gwadar.
Pushto-speaking communities on both sides of the border, transporters, and businesspeople are in severe distress. Several trucks and containers loaded with perishable items such as vegetables and fruits are parked at the border points, with the risk of those being spoiled or wasted increasing.
According to traders, if the border is not opened immediately, vegetables and fruits worth millions of rupees will go waste. In early 2025, a month-long closure resulted in an estimated $25 million in combined losses for Pakistani and Afghan businesses.
Local residents have described this situation as economic murder. They say that a large number of people involved in business, labor, and transport at the Torkham border earn their livelihoods daily. When the border is closed, thousands of families struggle to keep their households running, and some face starvation.
The closure of Torkham’s main passage is also causing difficulties for patients and students of two countries to come and go, while ordinary people, after the first day of clashes between the two countries’ forces, have returned home in disappointment.
