KHYBER: Speakers at a protest against the prolonged closure of Torkham border demanded here the other day that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister resign for ‘failing’ to raise an effective voice for the resumption of bilateral trade with Afghanistan.

Organised under the banner of Torkham Customs Clearing Agents Association and Tanzeem-i-Naujawanan, a local youth organisation, at the Bacha Khan Chowk in Landi Kotal, the gathering was attended by representatives of various political parties and civil society organisations, along with tribal elders.

Among the speakers were Mirajuddin, Hashim Afridi, Shah Faisal Afridi, Shah Hussain Shinwari, Shah Khalid, Murad Hussain, Mujeebullah Shinwari, Maulana Shoeb and Israr Shinwari.

The speakers said that though Khyber had two senators, an MNA, three PMAs, one of them being a provincial minister, and above all, the chief minister also hailed from the same district, they all failed to push for reopening of the border.

They alleged that over 10 months had passed since the closure of the border, but the provincial government and local elected representatives had kept mum over the monetary, psychological and physical stress caused to thousands of people attached to border trade.

If the provincial government and our elected representatives have no authority to raise their voices in support of the reopening of the border, they should resign, they said.

The speakers said that the involvement of the provincial government and its representatives was confined only to social media posts while they had so far failed to raise the issue on the floor of the national and provincial assemblies and the Senate.

They alleged that the provincial government was still unaware of the actual motives and the institute behind the closure of the border.

The speakers advised the provincial government to organise protest rallies in support of the border reopening on the pattern of the protest rallies they had been organising for the release of their incarcerated party leader.

They said that the border closure had resulted in loss of employment to hundreds of local labourers and daily wagers, while the business community and transporters too had incurred huge financial losses.

They said that while on the one hand the federal government had spent millions of rupees on the construction of a border terminal at Torkham to expedite and enhance trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian states, on the other hand, the border was abruptly closed in the name of security, without finding a political solution to the continuation of bilateral trade.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2026