‘A logistical nightmare’: How one Indian move is costing Pakistan millions and 50 day delays

India’s port ban on Pakistan-linked cargo is turning into a full-blown logistical crisis—stretching import timelines by up to 50 days and gutting efficiency in Pakistan’s already fragile trade economy.

Finfluencer Jayant Mundhra broke down the impact on LinkedIn, calling the move “a tactical shift that dismantles regional shipping efficiencies and directly inflates costs for an already strained Pakistani economy.”

The ban, enacted in early May 2025 after the Pahalgam terror attack, prohibits any vessel that has loaded or will load goods from Pakistan from docking at an Indian port. On the surface, it looks like a bilateral escalation. But in practice, it hits deeper—targeting the trans-shipment model that underpins maritime trade across South Asia.

“This strikes at the very heart of modern shipping logistics,” Mundhra noted.

The immediate fallout: “mother vessels”—massive container ships that power global supply chains—are avoiding Pakistani ports to maintain access to India, the region’s far larger market. The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirms the shift.

Without direct access to these mega ships, Pakistan has been forced onto feeder vessels—smaller ships that first transport cargo to hubs in the UAE or Sri Lanka before it can reach global destinations. This workaround is both slower and significantly more expensive.

“Import transit times are ballooning by 30 to 50 days,” Mundhra wrote. The result is a crushing delay in raw material shipments, which ripples through Pakistan’s export industries and cuts into already narrow margins.

While some in Pakistan’s shipping sector dispute the full scale of disruption, the broader consequence is hard to ignore. As Mundhra put it, “Geopolitics is now actively reshaping maritime routes,” turning logistical networks into instruments of pressure—and leaving Pakistan to absorb the costs.