Thousands of Trucks Remain Stranded as Iran-Pakistan Border Trade Resumes Slowly

Thousands of trucks remain stranded on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border despite the partial resumption of overland trade, with businesses calling on authorities to restore normal crossings after a week-long closure.

Mir Naveed Jan Kalmati, president of the Gwadar Chamber of Commerce in Pakistan’s southwestern coastal city, told AFP on Monday that the frontier was only partially open and a large backlog of vehicles remained waiting to cross.

“There are three to four thousand trucks on the Iranian side and two to three thousand trucks on the Pakistani side,” Kalmati said.

Authorities were allowing only selected vehicles through to reduce the backlog, he added. Businesses on both sides of the border were urging officials to permit a full return to normal trade.

Kalmati said traders and drivers were becoming increasingly frustrated by the delays. “They want to go back home, they want to continue their business,” he said.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, said in a post on X on Sunday that there were no restrictions on the Iranian side, including on exports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

He attributed the disruption to changes in Pakistan’s E-Form procedure for imports from Iran, saying the new implementation had left traders unable to dispatch cargo across the border.

Pakistan’s interior and foreign ministries did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

Fida Ahmad Dashti, a businessman in Balochistan province’s Kech district, said he had been informed that only vehicles with paperwork prepared before 16 October were being permitted to cross. Two other Balochistan-based businesspeople also said their drivers had received the same instructions.

The Gwadar Chamber of Commerce warned on Saturday that the suspension of LPG imports and the sudden border closure had disrupted Pakistan’s national LPG supply chain and caused prices to rise sharply.

The trade disruption comes as Pakistan seeks to help mediate an end to the wider conflict in the Middle East involving Iran. Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, visited Tehran on Monday, according to the Pakistani military. It was his second visit to Iran in less than a week.

Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan were also scheduled to meet Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday to discuss regional security, Iranian and Saudi authorities said.

Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement in August, committing to mutual defence if either country came under attack.

For traders and transport operators, however, the immediate concern remains the border backlog, with delays affecting cargo movements, drivers’ journeys and the supply of essential goods.