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In a new report, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has accused Pakistan of turning its border management policies into instruments of suffering and social collapse across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
The fact-finding study, titled "When Policy Divides," paints a grim picture of how Pakistan''s post-2023 passport-visa regime and the fencing of the Durand Line have destroyed livelihoods, fractured families, and deepened resentment among border communities. According to the report, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people who used to cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border daily, labourers, traders, drivers, and divided families, have lost their only means of income since the "one-document policy" came into force. HRCP notes that what once served as a lifeline for local economies has now been strangled by bureaucratic rigidity and corruption. "The thriving middle class of Chaman has vanished," the report quotes one local journalist as saying. The study highlights tragic human consequences: children increasingly risk their lives to smuggle goods through gaps in the fencing, with multiple reports of minors crushed under trucks while attempting crossings. Families living along the border have been split apart, with funerals and post-death rituals rendered impossible due to movement restrictions. Over 25,000 computerised national Identity Cards (CNICs) of border residents have reportedly been blocked, further isolating them from basic rights. Entire communities displaced since 2014 around Ghulam Khan remain in limbo, with Islamabad offering no clear rehabilitation policy. Meanwhile, locals allege rampant corruption among customs officials and Frontier Corps personnel, accusing them of facilitating illicit trade while punishing poor border crossers. The HRCP urges the government to restore traditional Rahdari and Labour cards, permit regulated visa-free crossings for residents, and establish jointly managed border trade zones to revive economic life. The report concludes that Pakistan''s militarised border policy, driven by security paranoia rather than human concern, has turned once-vibrant frontiers into zones of deprivation, resentment, and despair. "A fence," it warns, "cannot secure a country if it cuts through its own people." (ANI)
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