Chaman district: the border trade gateway at the foot of Khojak

Introduction and location

Travelling north-west from Quetta, the road crosses the Pishin plain and climbs the Khwaja Amran range. Beyond the Khojak Pass, right on the border, lies the town of Chaman. It is a major gateway for the land route between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to the 2023 census, Chaman district has a population of 466,218 and an area of 1,341 square kilometres. The same census shows that 130,139 people live in urban areas and 336,079 in rural areas. About 28 per cent of the population is urban. The district has 61,915 households. It has two tehsils: Chaman (city) and Chaman Sadar. The entire urban population lives in Chaman city tehsil, while most of the district’s area falls under Chaman Sadar.

Administratively, Chaman is a young district. At the end of June 2021, a notification of the Board of Revenue, Balochistan, split Qila Abdullah district in two. The new Chaman district was formed from Chaman city and Chaman Sadar tehsil. The tehsils of Qila Abdullah, Gulistan and Dobandi stayed with Qila Abdullah. The same notification divided Zhob division and created Loralai division.

In July 2026, the provincial government reorganised Balochistan’s administrative structure and divided the province into 11 divisions and 41 districts. According to press reports, a new division named Pishin was created under this arrangement. It includes Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Chaman and the new district of Barshore. No change was made to Chaman’s boundaries. The original notification of this change has not yet come to our notice.

History

In British times, Chaman was a sub-division of Quetta-Pishin district. Volume V of the Baluchistan District Gazetteer Series, “Quetta-Pishin”, published in 1907, covers this area. The Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908) mentions the Khwaja Amran range, a southern branch of which, called Sarlath, forms the western boundary of the district.

Chaman’s modern history is linked to the railway. In the late 19th century, British India feared that Russia would advance towards India through Afghanistan. A plan was therefore made to lay a railway line from Quetta to Kandahar. According to railway history, the plan to go as far as Kandahar was dropped by 1888. The project was renamed the “Chaman Extension Railway”, meaning the line would now run only up to Chaman. Engines of that time could not manage the climb of Khwaja Amran. Temporary inclines worked by ropes were built first, and then a tunnel was dug under the Khojak Pass.

According to railway history sources, work on the Khojak tunnel began on 14 April 1888. The first steam engine passed through it on 5 September 1891. The tunnel is about 3.9 kilometres long and is still in use. Its Shela Bagh mouth is in present-day Qila Abdullah district, but the Chaman area begins as soon as one emerges on the other side. The railway reached Chaman in early 1892. According to the Imperial Gazetteer, military posts were kept at Shela Bagh and Spin Wana to guard the Khojak tunnel.

The border that is now part of Chaman’s identity was also drawn in this period. On 12 November 1893, a short agreement was signed in Kabul between Sir Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of British India, and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan. It fixed the limit of influence of the two governments. From 1894, a joint survey began to mark the line on the ground. This line is called the Durand Line, and Chaman is the last town on the Pakistani side of this border.

People and languages

Most of the population of Chaman district is Pashtun, and the common language is Pashto. In the mother tongue table of the 2023 census (Table 11), 76.54 per cent of the population of Quetta division, which then included Chaman, gave Pashto as their mother tongue. The separate table for Chaman district could not be read when this article was prepared, so the district proportion is not given here.

According to the census, about 72 per cent of the district’s population is rural, while 28 per cent lives in Chaman city.

Economy

Chaman’s economy rests on two pillars: border trade and horticulture.

The border crossing, known as the “Friendship Gate”, faces the Afghan towns of Weesh and Spin Boldak. According to Dawn, in May 2023 a separate crossing for transit trade trucks was opened about one kilometre from the Friendship Gate to speed up customs clearance. Chaman is the only town on the Afghan border where a separate official route has been made for transit trucks. The old Friendship Gate was kept for general trade and the movement of people. Afghan transit trade is managed by the FBR’s Directorate of Transit Trade (Customs).

In horticulture, Chaman is known for grapes. The Balochistan Agriculture Sector Policy and Strategy 2021–2030 places Qila Abdullah, of which Chaman was then a part, in the “Highlands II” agro-ecological zone, where grapes, apples, peaches, apricots and almonds are grown. A recent report, citing the Director of Agricultural Research, Balochistan, puts Chaman’s annual grape production at 1,600 metric tonnes. It also says that more than 65 per cent of Chaman’s growers irrigate their vineyards with karezes. These figures come from an interview, not from an official table.

Places of interest

Khojak Pass and Khojak tunnel: The Khojak tunnel, completed in 1891, is a notable example of British-era railway engineering.

Chaman railway station: The railway line from Quetta ends at Chaman, and the station is the border terminus of the Pakistan Railways network.

Friendship Gate: This is Chaman’s gateway on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Visitors must follow the instructions of the local administration.