KHYBER: Hundreds of daily-wage workers and porters here are in a state of utter despair due to the prolonged closure of the Torkham border point as they face serious financial problems after losing part-time jobs.

With the immediate solution to the border security and terrorism-related issues not in sight, most of these labourers are understood to be looking for jobs in Punjab and Sindh, while others have borrowed money from relatives and friends to manage expenses.

They are so strapped for cash that they’ve stopped sending their children to school to their misery.

Some jobless daily-wagers and porters have reportedly started taking drugs for mental stress.

Most looking for jobs in other provinces

Mansoor Ali told Dawn that poverty had forced him to abandon his FSc computer science course midway and start carrying the luggage of Afghan and Pakistani nationals between the border point and the taxi stand for meagre amounts.

The 24-year-old, who has been married for eight months only, said he had sleepless nights under tremendous mental stress due to the loss of job over border closure.

He said he remained in his small room for hours, wondering about his future as both Pakistani and Afghan authorities had ignored his and others’ financial misery.

The worker said that he also cherished restarting his education while taking up computer science as a career but couldn’t pursue his dream profession due to financial constraints.

He said he had already borrowed thousands of rupees from relatives to manage the daily expenses of his family.

Farman Ali Shinwari, a leader of the Torkham Labourers and Porters Association, feared that the young jobless labourers could join proscribed terrorist outfits, which were out to exploit the distressing conditions of such frustrated youth.

He said that the current situation had pushed jobless youth into “reviving” decades-old family and property disputes as they sat idle in their home for days and weeks and were ready forquarrels.

“We also fear that some young tribesmen will be employed as drug peddlers as narcotics dealers offer them good wages,” he said.

The hardships for these daily wagers, mostly unskilled people, began in 2016 when Pakistan announced a visa policy for all Afghan and Pakistani national commuting between the two neighboring countries via the Torkham border point.

Totaling around 8,000, both local and Afghan labourers and porters were long seen requesting Pakistani security and immigration officials for free cross-border movement but had to follow new visa regulations.

Farman Shinwari told Dawn that most Afghan labourers were confined to the other side of the border, while local labourers steadily acquired their national passports and had visas stamped on them though for a price beyond their financial capacity.

Israr Shinwari, patron in chief of a local youth organisation helping address legal and financial problems of labourers, said the number of such workers, including over 100 persons with disabilities, had declined to 2,000.

“Nobody is willing to offer even manual jobs to these special persons who are already facing financial problems,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2025