Chaman

Chaman is a city in the northwest of Balochistan, Pakistan, and the capital of Chaman District. It lies close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, just south of the Wesh-Chaman border crossing that leads to Kandahar province in Afghanistan. The name is generally taken to come from the Urdu word for garden, although the area was already called Chaman well before the 1947 partition. Because it sits at a mountain pass on the old eastern trade routes, the town has long worked as a trading stop, and today it is a major gateway for goods moving between Afghanistan and Karachi, as well as the last station on the Rohri-Chaman railway line from Quetta. It has a hot semi-arid climate. The 2023 census counted 130,139 residents, making it one of the larger cities of Balochistan after Quetta. Football is the most popular sport, with local clubs that draw some of the biggest crowds in Pakistani domestic play.