QUETTA: Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industries (QCCI) president Ghulam Farooq Khan Khilji and senior vice president Badaruddin Kakar have expressed serious concern over closure of the Chaman border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and said it is badly affecting the Balochistan’s economy as the trade between the two countries has come to a complete halt.

During a meeting at the QCCI office on Saturday, they said that the continuous closure of the Pak-Afghan border caused massive unemployment as thousands of daily wagers working at both sides of the border lost their jobs. They said the closure of the border had created a difficult situation for the people in the bordering districts of the province.

They urged the government to immediately open the Chaman border so that trade activities between the two countries could be resumed.

“Even financially stable people in import, export and service businesses are facing a serious economic crisis,” Mr Khliji said.

He said that already employment opportunities were very limited in Balochistan which had no industrial and other jobs in its border areas. The closure of the Chaman border with neighbouring Afghanistan had further deteriorated the economic situation in these areas.

Raising alarm over shrinking business opportunities in Balochistan, the QCCI leaders said that if the border continued to remain closed, industrialists and traders in the province would go bankrupt and thousands of people would lose their livelihoods. Because of the closure of the Chaman border, a large part of the country’s business had now shifted to Iran, they added.

They expressed anger over what they called the government’s non-seriousness over this issue and said some people were doing politics over the closure of the Pak-Afghan border.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2020