In April 2026, Gwadar Port handled around 11,000 shipping containers, more than it handled in all of 2025. Officials in Islamabad are calling this proof that a decade of investment has finally paid off. The numbers tell a different story when you look at what was happening at Karachi at the same time, and at what it has been costing importers across the country to find out.

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since late February, when the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran. Major container lines suspended transits. Cargo bound for Iran, Central Asia, and parts of the Gulf needed a new way through. Pakistan, by accident of geography, sat at the alternative: Gwadar is 400 kilometres from Hormuz on the safe side of the Arabian Sea. Around 3,000 Iran-bound containers piled up at Karachi and Port Qasim through March and most of April, until the government activated a land transit corridor on 25 April. Karachi's own transhipment volumes rose to 8,860 containers in the first 24 days of March alone, more than the city's port handled in all of 2025.

That headline number masks a much harder one. The average vessel waiting time at Karachi in early April was 5.5 days, compared with 1.5 days at Colombo and 1 day at Chennai. Cargo that arrives at Pakistani ports does not move out of them at a competitive speed: average clearance dwell ranges from three to six days against an international target of 48 hours for imports, and a 2024 report by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation found that 63........

© The Friday Times