Pakistan’s recorded imports from India rose by 68.9% year on year to $61.74 million in July–September 2026, the first quarter of the 2026–27 financial year, according to State Bank of Pakistan data reported by Dawn on 27 October. The figure compares with $36.55 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Pakistan recorded no exports to India during the same three months, leaving the bilateral flow entirely one-way in the reported data.

Trade restrictions remain in place

Direct bilateral trade has remained suspended since restrictions imposed in 2025. India prohibited the direct or indirect import and transit of goods originating in or exported from Pakistan in a notification dated 2 May 2025, following the Pahalgam attack, and Pakistan also prohibited imports of Indian-origin goods, including goods routed through third countries. The latest figures therefore raise a question the data alone does not answer: they record the value and the stated origin, but they do not identify the route the goods took or whether they moved directly or through intermediary countries.

What the figures do not prove

One explanation reported alongside the figures is that therapeutic products regulated by Pakistan’s drug authority have continued under existing exemptions, which would account for at least part of the continuing flow, particularly pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines. That explanation has not been confirmed in detail from the headline figures, and the breakdown by product category, customs declaration and shipping route has not been published in the reports seen. Readers should therefore treat the rise as a recorded trade statistic, not as evidence of a particular route or of deliberate circumvention.

Sources: Beats In Brief, Origin Pakistan.