Islamabad: The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed a 53.02 per cent decline in revenue due to the continued closure and suspension of trade at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border since October last year, resulting in provincial government seeking intervention from the federal government, local media reported on Friday.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border closure has caused revenue losses for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the collection of Infrastructure Development Cess (IDC) reduced to Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 3.48 billion from PKR 7.42 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year over the corresponding period of 2025, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister’s financial adviser, Muzammil Aslam, has written a letter to Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Jam Kamal, requesting an urgent meeting of provincial and federal stakeholders. The participants of the meeting are expected to discuss the revenue implications for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the challenges faced by exporters and traders, including stuck payments and the loss of business activity.
Aslam stated that prolonged border disruption was causing serious revenue, economic, and employment consequences for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He stated that initial disruption in cess collection was caused due to court stay order, which was resolved in November. Recovery efforts were made, however, those efforts did not produce results as cross-border trade remained suspended.
He said that exporters and traders are facing difficulty as their consignments and payments are stuck across the border and mentioned that many businesses were not able to meet their statutory cess obligations due to the trade suspension between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained shut since October last year, halting bilateral trade between two nations. The border closures came after clashes erupted between Pakistani forces and the Taliban that lasted for eight days. The border crossings have not reopened despite several rounds of talks held between officials of Afghanistan and Pakistan, aimed at easing tensions.
On January 4, people held a protest in the Landi Kotal area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to demand an immediate reopening of the Torkham border. Traders, transporters, tribal elders, daily wagers, activists of political parties and civil society were part of the protest held under the banner of All Borders Coordinators Council.
Representatives from various organisations and groups, who were directly impacted by the border shutdown with Afghanistan, participated in the protest, Dawn reported. While addressing the protesters, the speakers said that the border closure has caused economic murder of thousands of people, the majority of them being tribesmen, as they were fully reliant on the cross-border trade.
They called the Torkham border an important business gateway to Central Asia and said that the border crossing served as an economic hub for thousands of families, as their livelihoods were linked to it. According to them, all commercial activities have stopped in the town due to the border closure.
The speakers said that hundreds of families faced extreme poverty and economic problems due to border closure, with many of them forced to take loans for their survival. They urged Afghanistan and Pakistan not to relate bilateral trade to political and security issues and to allow people to travel frequently on both sides of the border.
(IANS)
