The border trade points operate only three days a week.—Photo by writer
THE authorities have started to fence the 900-kilometre border with Iran in Balochistan. I was recently in Mashkhel, a remote border town in western Balochistan’s impoverished Washuk district, to take a first-hand look at Pakistan-Iran trade.
The purpose of my visit was to educate myself about the measures that can be taken to improve the lot of people living on the Pakistan side of the border as they are dependent on bilateral trade and are the ultimate sufferers when the government steps in to restrict trade by invoking the US sanctions against Iran.