KARACHI: Movement of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) cargo has come to a halt, with terminal operators directed to offload containers, according to the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI).

PAJCCI President Junaid Makda told Dawn that cargo movement under ATT, as well as bilateral trade at all four border crossings — Chaman, Torkham, Kharlachi and Ghulam Khan — has been suspended for the past five days following recent hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said that while no official notification or instruction has been issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), trade activities have nonetheless come to a standstill. “Various sources indicate that this suspension may continue indefinitely,” Mr Makda said.

Traders are reportedly being advised to offload perishable goods destined for Afghanistan and Central Asian states and either sell them locally or shift them to nearby warehouses. Similar issues are being faced with perishables arriving from Afghanistan. The daily ATT cargo movement typically involves over 1,000 containers, but this flow has ceased entirely in recent days.

According to media reports, a meeting was held at the Directorate of Transit Trade at Customs House, Karachi, chaired by the Director General of Afghan Transit Trade and attended by directors from Peshawar and Quetta. A Customs General Order issued after the meeting confirmed that ATT operations were being suspended for an indefinite period due to lack of space for containers at border customs stations in Quetta and Peshawar.

Participants were reportedly advised to cancel gate passes and offload already loaded containers.

In its 11th annual general meeting on 30 September 2025, PAJCCI had already expressed concern over declining formal trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan — which has dropped from $2.5bn to below $1bn. The chamber called for a comparative analysis to understand the shift of Afghan traders towards China and underscored the need for improving Pakistan’s trade competitiveness.The meeting also noted that container traffic at Torkham had declined sharply from 6,000-7,000 per day to just a few hundred, attributing the drop in part to the imposition of the Infrastructure Development Cess.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2025