The illicit trade has long thrived in the region but is feeling the knock-on effects of the war which has engulfed the Middle East following US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Supplies coming across the 900-kilometre (560-mile) border between Pakistan and Iran have dropped by nearly half and driven up prices.

"Before the war, the rate was good," Hakeem Ullah, a 35-year-old driver, told AFP.

"We used to get petrol for 150 rupees ($0.54). But now, after the war, we are getting petrol for 190 rupees per litre."

Ullah is one of dozens of young men in the border towns of Balochistan province who transport fuel across the frontier every day in blue Iranian-made Zamyad trucks.

A single trip that once earned him a steady profit has now seen his margin cut by half due to the spike in cost and disrupted supplies.

"We would make a profit of approximately 40 to 50,000 rupees per vehicle, and buyers would also be found quickly," said Ullah in Mastung, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the provincial capital Quetta.

"We have been standing here for the last five days but we are not getting a fair price at which we can sell it."

- Poverty -

Pakistan is reliant on oil and gas from the Gulf.

Since war broke out, prices have increased at the pump and the government has introduced curbs to limit fuel consumption.

Measures include cutting the working week for government workers to four days and shutting public schools.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that there would be no military parades and flypasts at next Monday's Pakistan Day public holiday because of the crisis.

Ministers say they are trying to prevent having to impose any further fuel price increases, which would hit the country's poorest, including in Balochistan.

The sparsely populated province -- Pakistan's largest and most resource-rich -- is also its most impoverished, lagging behind the rest of the country in education, employment and economic development.

Ordinarily, petrol price increases on the conventional market would force people to turn to the smugglers, who typically use unpaved desert tracks and mountain paths along the border linking Iranian frontier towns with Pakistani districts such as Panjgur, Turbat and Gwadar, on the coast.

The fuel is then transported hundreds of kilometres to Mastung district, where it is offloaded and transferred onto motorbikes in jerrycans for local distribution.

Drivers said they were concerned about the squeeze on supplies and price increases -- plus the impact on their livelihoods.

"There is no industrial sector in Balochistan and government jobs are limited," said Fazal Muhammad, 28, as he and dozens of others embarked on a perilous journey transporting fuel by motorbike to markets in Quetta.

"We were forced to join this profession, where at least we take 2,000 to 3,000 rupees in the evening," he added.