More punishment for Pakistan as THIS one move by Modi govt is making Islamabad lose huge amount of money daily due to...

India.com

03-07-2025

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India-Pakistan relations: India took a host of punitive diplomatic measures against Pakistan after the heinous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, including holding the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, and halting all trade ties between the two countries. But there is one move made by the Narendra Modi government which has struck Pakistan where it really hurts– its already fragile economy. Why India imposed ban on Pakistan-bound vessels?
Along with other restrictions post Pahalgam, India also imposed a complete port ban, which bars any Pakistan-linked cargo from docking at any Indian port. This has resulted into a full-blown logistical crisis for the enemy country and making it lose millions of dollars as its import timelines are stretched by up to 50 days due to the ban.
In a LinkedIn post, Jayant Mundhra, a prominent Finfluencer, analyzed the impact of India's port ban on Pakistan, calling it a 'a tactical shift that dismantles regional shipping efficiencies and directly inflates costs for an already strained Pakistani economy.'
'This strikes at the very heart of modern shipping logistics,' he said. What is India's port ban?
The ban, which came into effect in early May, days after the Pahalgam terror attack, bars any vessel that has loaded, or intends to load goods from Pakistan, from docking at any Indian port. The move, according to Mundhra, 'strikes at the very heart of modern shipping logistics', as it targets the trans-shipment model which props up maritime trade across South Asia. How India's ban impacts Pakistan's shipping and trade?
According to various reports, following the ban, mother vessels– giant container ship that power global supply chains– have begun avoiding Pakistani ports to maintain access to India. due to the latter being a much larger market. The drastic shift has been confirmed by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The absence of these 'mother vessels' has forced Pakistan to use feeder vessels, which are smaller ships that are used to first transport the cargo to hubs in the UAE or Sri Lanka, before it is dispatched to other destinations across the globe. The workaround is a temporary fix because it is a lot slower and much more expensive.
'Import transit times are ballooning by 30 to 50 days,' Mundhra says, adding that this is causing long delays in raw material shipments, and negatively impacts Pakistan's exports by further narrowing profit margins.
While Islamabad denies any major impact on its shipping sector due to the ban, the data is undeniable, and shows that India's port ban is severely hurting Pakistan's trade and economy.