With nearly 3,000 Iran-bound containers stuck for weeks at Karachi ports due to US-imposed maritime restrictions on Tehran, Pakistan has opened six overland trade corridors to ease the backlog. But what began as an emergency logistical move could ultimately expand Islamabad’s strategic leverage and accelerate Tehran’s broader regional alignment.

Activating a dormant 2008 bilateral road transport agreement with Iran, Pakistan’s Commerce Ministry issued orders on April 25 to link the ports of Karachi, Qasim and Gwadar with the Iranian border crossings at Gabd and Taftan. 

Passing through Turbat, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Quetta and Dalbandin in Balochistan, the routes create a transit cargo network, providing a partial restoration of commercial access into Iran at a time of mounting maritime disruption. Although land transport is slower and costlier than sea freight, the corridors offer Iran a critical pressure valve as supply chains tighten in a country heavily reliant on imported food grains, consumer goods and refined fuel.

Because the framework also permits third-country cargo to transit through Pakistan into Iran — excluding Indian-origin goods under Islamabad’s transit ban — the move could gradually reshape regional trade flows and give Pakistan greater influence over one of the few viable commercial arteries still open to Tehran.