In a joint press conference with industrialists in Peshawar on Thursday, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce President Muhammad Ishaq said that they have shared details of extortion calls - receieved via WhatsApp or from unregistered numbers - shared with the police.

Following an increase in militant activity in September, industrialists have said that they have been receiving ransom calls, often from numbers registered in Afghanistan. Locals say that some industrialists had relocated to different cities in order to escape the threat.

During the press conference, Ishaq revealed that that electricity worth between Rs7 billion to Rs9 billion was being stolen annually in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that many factotries had already shut down but they were still receiving bills.

Ishaq said that good worth more than $10 billion were lying at the Karachi port. “Industrialists have not been issued letters of credit (LCs) for the last four months,” he said.

He said more factories would be forced to shut down due to problems in getting an LC.

They added that Pakistan’s business volume with Central Asian countries was also on the decrease. They said that the Afghan government was charging additional taxes on exports from Central Asia. “Our annual trade with Central Asia has dropped from $2.5 billion to $800 million,” he said.