The president of the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industries (QCCI) expressed serious concern about bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan as the Chaman border crossing remains closed.

QCCI president Ghulam Farooq Khan Khilji and senior vice president Badaruddin Kakar said the continued closure of the terminal has ground most trade operations in the region on both sides of the border.
“Even financially stable people in import, export and service businesses are facing a serious economic crisis,” Khilji said.

During a meeting at the QCCI office on Saturday, they said that the continuous closure at Chaman has caused massive unemployment as thousands of daily wagers working at both sides of the border lost their jobs.
The QCCI urged the Pakistan government to immediately open the Chaman border so that trade activities between the two countries could be resumed.
They warned that if the border remained closed, industrialists and traders may go bankrupt and lose their livelihoods.
They expressed anger over what they called the government’s non-seriousness over this issue and said some people were doing politics over the closure of the Pak-Afghan border.
Speaker of the Pakistani National Assembly Asad Qaiser said that the border crossing remained closed due to concerns of COVID-19.
During a July 17 meeting, representatives from Ministries of Interior and National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination were directed to resolve the issue on priority basis.