Pakistan opens six Iran corridors
- Pakistan’s commerce ministry put a new transit order into force on April 25, formally opening six overland corridors for third-country cargo headed to Iran. - The routes link Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar to the Gabd and Taftan crossings, as more than 3,000 Iran-bound containers wait at Karachi. - The order revives a 2008 Pakistan-Iran road transport pact and shifts cargo toward land routes during Gulf disruption. (commerce.gov.pk)
Pakistan has formally opened six land corridors for third-country cargo to Iran under a new order that took effect on April 25. (commerce.gov.pk) The order is called the Transit of Goods through Territory of Pakistan Order 2026, issued as S.R.O. 691(I)/2026 by the Ministry of Commerce in Islamabad. It applies to goods shipped from a third country to a destination in Iran through Pakistan. (commerce.gov.pk) The six designated routes run from Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar to the Iranian border points at Gabd and Taftan. The listed corridors include Gwadar-Gabd, Karachi/Port Qasim-Lyari-Ormara-Pasni-Gabd, and Karachi/Port Qasim-Khuzdar-Dalbandin-Taftan. (commerce.gov.pk) (dawn.com) Two longer routes from Gwadar also feed Taftan through Turbat, Hoshab, Panjgur, Besima, Khuzdar and Quetta, and a sixth route links Karachi or Port Qasim to Gabd via Gwadar. The cargo must move under Pakistan customs rules and an encashable financial guarantee equal to Pakistani import levies. (commerce.gov.pk) The move comes as more than 3,000 containers bound for Iran have been reported stuck at Karachi port in recent days. Pakistani media tied the backlog to disruption around the Strait of Hormuz and restrictions affecting Iranian ports. (dawn.com) This is not a blanket opening of trade with Iran. The order covers transit cargo from third countries, and it anchors that traffic in a legal framework tied to Pakistan’s customs law and a bilateral road transport agreement signed on June 29, 2008. (commerce.gov.pk) (geo.tv) Pakistan had already been testing Iran-linked overland logistics this month. On April 12, the Directorate General of Transit Trade said it had sent a first export shipment via the Gabd-Rimdan crossing toward Tashkent in Uzbekistan. (arabnews.pk) That earlier shipment carried frozen beef and was presented by Pakistani officials as part of a push to use Iran as an alternative corridor to Central Asia after repeated disruptions on routes through Afghanistan. The same announcement said crossings including Taftan, Rimdan, Sost and Gwadar had been enabled for international road transit consignments. (arabnews.pk) The new order turns that broader idea into a formal map: ports in southern Pakistan, fixed road corridors across Balochistan, and two border exits into Iran. It gives shippers a defined set of routes at a moment when sea access to Iran has become less reliable. (commerce.gov.pk) (dawn.com) For now, the immediate test is whether those six corridors can clear the Karachi backlog and keep cargo moving west by road. Pakistan’s government has created the lanes; traders and customs officials now have to make them work. (dawn.com) (commerce.gov.pk)
