Portraits from Pakistan's Trucking Industry

June 06, 2013 | Pulitzer Center

Matthieu Aikins, for the Pulitzer Center

Azim Khan sits inside the cab of his tanker truck in Shireen Jinnah. He had not been able to work for eight months after Pakistan suspended the NATO supply route over a dispute with the US. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Abdul Nisar, a Punjabi speaker from Lahore, works sewing seats in the predominantly Pashtun area of Shireen Jinnah. "Business was very good when NATO was running," he says. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Azizullah works in a tire-patching shop. He came to Karachi six years earlier from a remote village in Mohmand in the tribal areas. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Ibrahim is from Tank district, and sells tires in Shireen Jinnah. He says business is down by half. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Sayed Saifullah and his sons Fareed, 18, and Syed Jahangir, 9, stand in front of their one-room tire-jack shop. The boys' mother lives back in their village outside of Quetta, and they share a one-room apartment with their father in Karachi. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Omar Azaz, from Landi Kotal, works as a "conductor," or helper, on a tanker truck. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Khaksar Ali, left, is the president of the local Awami National Party office in Shireen Jinnah. The predominantly Pashtun ANP has become increasingly powerful in Karachi, due to migration from the tribal regions. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Din Muhammad and his donkey haul drinking water to supply the truckers of Shireen Jinnah. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Sayed, left, sells cloth from his vendor cart. "If people can't afford to buy food, how can they buy clothes?" he says, explaining business is down by half. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Nasir Khan is an apprentice mechanic from Landi Kotal. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Habibullah, originally from Quetta, sells juice to the truckers of Shireen Jinnah. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Pakistan’s trucking industry, which has undergone a boom in recent years due to the increased demand from the US and NATO troop presence in Afghanistan, supports more than just truckers. In Shireen Jinnah Colony, a major transportation hub in the port city of Karachi, thousands of craftsmen and merchants depend on the trucking industry for their livelihood. When, in late 2011, Pakistan suspended the NATO supply route over an errant US airstrike that killed 24 of its soldiers, the neighborhood fell into a deep recession.