Making Pakistan’s Trade Logistics Work: A Four-Part Policy Series on Freight Efficiency, Multimodal Connectivity and Digital Trade Facilitation

A Four-Part Policy Series on Freight Efficiency, Multimodal Connectivity and Digital Trade Facilitation

From Dry Ports to Logistics Hubs: Unlocking Pakistan’s Existing Trade Infrastructure

Part 1 of 4: Making Pakistan’s Trade Logistics Work

Visit a dry port on a working day, and the first thing you notice may be how ordinary it looks: a customs yard, stacked containers, and a gate. That ordinariness is easy to overlook. Pakistan has built a network of inland terminals over decades, and the question for the next phase is what they can do beyond holding boxes.

The network is substantial. Pakistan’s inland trade network includes dry ports and border terminals across major commercial and border locations. The National Logistics Cell lists dry-port facilities at Sost, Lahore, Quetta, Hyderabad and Karachi, alongside a multimodal transit hub near Lahore.

At the coast, Karachi Port handled 53.95 million tonnes in FY2024-25, while Port Qasim handled approximately 45 million tonnes. The Planning Commission’s Blue Economy assessment places both ports’ capacity utilisation at around 50 per cent. The report adds that better utilisation will depend on integrating transport networks and improving logistics efficiency. Inland terminals are a natural part of that answer.

One thing cannot yet be said precisely: how busy each dry port is. No consolidated, publicly accessible national series on throughput and dwell time by individual dry ports was identified, limiting systematic assessment of their utilisation and operational performance.

Customs experts speaking in Lahore in July 2025 called for an integrated dry-port strategy, highlighting the need for stronger coordination among the FBR, Pakistan Railways, the Ministry of Commerce and trade associations. These recommendations point to institutional coordination and service integration as priorities for reform.

Government institutions have already built relevant foundations. Pakistan Single Window has extended digital customs declarations to inland dry ports for specified import consignments, with Quetta excluded from the initial arrangement.

Separately, its PortVerse platform introduced electronic delivery-order processing at Qasim International Container Terminal from April 2026. Pakistan Railways has also established a public-private partnership model through Prem Nagar Dry Port near Lahore.

These initiatives provide a foundation for better coordination between inland terminals, ports and trade stakeholders.

The gap lies in how they connect. A dry port becomes a logistics hub when stopping there simplifies the consignment’s whole journey: customs clearance is completed inland, cargo is consolidated and stored under bond, the empty container is returned nearby, and information from the port reaches the yard before the box does.

Where such services are partial, an exporter may still route everything through the seaport out of habit, and the inland terminal remains a parking yard.

Four practical steps could change that, using existing mandates.

First, an audit.

Pakistan Customs and the Ministry of Commerce, with dry-port operators and trusts, should publish a one-page profile of each dry port covering annual throughput, cargo dwell time, customs release time, operating hours, rail or motorway connectivity and available services.

A 100-day timeline is realistic. The audit would also show whether a national dry-port policy is needed or whether consolidating existing procedures into one published service standard would be enough.

Second, an inland-clearance pilot at one or two dry ports.

The pilot should focus on locations with proven volumes and good rail or motorway links. The FBR would authorise full customs functions at the yard, including assessment, examination and release, with extended working hours where volumes justify them.

Delivery-order data from PortVerse would be visible to the dry port before arrival. Six months is a sensible pilot period.

Third, a commercial service menu.

Operators should deliver services under existing lease and partnership arrangements, including consolidation, bonded and general warehousing, an empty-container depot and, where demand exists, cold storage for perishables.

Dry-port owners, including Pakistan Railways, the National Logistics Cell and private trusts, would lead. The government’s role is to clear the regulatory path, not to fund the warehouses.

Fourth, a quarterly scorecard.

The FBR, in coordination with Pakistan Single Window, should publish a quarterly scorecard for each dry port covering dwell time, release time, customs staffing during operating hours and service availability.

Published numbers would let exporters compare options and help operators identify areas for improvement.

Costs should be stated plainly. The audit and scorecard are administrative. Extended customs staffing and system links will need funding from existing budgets. New warehousing is a commercial investment for operators.

Projects such as the Havelian Dry Port should be reviewed against updated feasibility, financing and demand assessments before further public investment is committed.

Success can be measured in dry-port throughput against the audit baseline, the time from port gate-out to release, the share of containers cleared inland, the number of service lines operating at pilot sites, and the number of dry ports publishing a scorecard.

Pakistan does not need to build its way to a logistics hub network. It needs to finish what the terminals already begin: clearance, storage and information in one place.

A dry port that does that is no longer a yard. It is a reason to ship through it.

Mr Mujtaba Arshad is a research associate at the Centre of Excellence for CPEC, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad.