The prolonged closure of Balochistan's border crossings with Iran has left an estimated 20 to 25 lakh (two to 2.5 million) people across the province's border districts without a source of income, National Party (NP) president and former Chief Minister Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch said during the interview with private media channel , warning that treating the informal border trade as mere "smuggling" ignores the economic reality of the region.

Dr. Malik said cross-border commerce has sustained families in Chagai, Washuk, Panjgur, Kech and Gwadar for generations, predating the creation of Pakistan itself, and cannot simply be equated with contraband trafficking. "This is organized economic activity that has fed entire districts," he said, calling for the trade to be regularized and brought under a legal, documented framework instead of being shut down outright.

The border points have remained largely sealed since Pakistan closed its frontier with Iran amid the escalation of the Iran-Israel war earlier this year, cutting off a supply line that, by various estimates, moved close to two million litres of fuel a day and underpinned a cross-border economy worth several hundred million dollars annually, employing tens of thousands of drivers, vendors and middlemen directly and many more indirectly. Flour, cooking oil and fuel prices in the border belt have risen by 30 to 70 percent since the closures began, deepening a supply crisis in districts that draw up to 80 percent of their household fuel and food from Iran.

Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has publicly acknowledged the dilemma, previously describing the fuel trade as "illegal, but a lifeline" and appealing to Islamabad to "close the border, but open jobs" before enforcement is tightened further. Local reporters and rights advocates say the crackdown on fuel carrying vehicles and the wider border closures have already triggered protests in parts of the Makran and Rakhshan divisions, with authorities accused of using excessive force against demonstrators.

Responding to questions about talks on federal government formation involving Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Dr. Malik declined to comment on another party's internal deliberations, saying JUI-F's own 14 members of the Balochistan Assembly were better placed to speak for their leadership. He argued that political parties with a genuine electoral mandate in Balochistan are being sidelined, even as some coalition partners in the current government hold power without a popular majority behind them.

The National Party chief renewed longstanding demands for full implementation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment and the National Finance Commission award, and cautioned against allowing unelected institutions to run provincial affairs in place of elected representatives. He said the National Party remains committed to playing its role in the National Assembly, the Senate and all four provincial legislatures, and reiterated that dialogue among all political stakeholders, not the use of force against protesters, is the only durable route out of Balochistan's border crisis. "The solution to Balochistan's problems does not lie in the use of force," he said, "but in genuine democratic autonomy and provincial rights."