KHYBER: The Khyber Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday demanded immediate re-opening of the Torkham border.

Speaking at a press conference in Landi Kotal, president of the chamber Yousuf Afridi called for separating bilateral trade with neighbouring countries from politics.

He said that politicising the border trade had caused billions of rupees losses to the country while thousands of local people had lost their jobs.

He said the Torkham border had been closed for almost a year, the federal government had failed to honour its commitments made with business community to review the border policy, promote bilateral trade and resolve the security issues with Afghanistan.

He recalled that interior minister had in recent past assured the representatives of different chambers of commerce and industries that a joint meeting regarding resolving the border issues and resumption of the trade would be held in Peshawar soon but the promise has not yet been fulfilled, a sheer disappointment for the trading and transport communities.

Mr Afridi revealed that the country had so far incurred financial losses to the tune of US$2.5 billion, which included US$1.644 billion in exports and another US$817 million in imports. He said that another Rs7.7 billion were lost under provincial cess head due to border closure while the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was totally silent about these huge financial losses.

He said the continuous border closure has affected the transport sector and thousands of traders, shopkeepers, labourers and customs clearing agents.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2026