Reading all these posts, I feel my fellow Pakistanis have completely missed the point of the original article. Two comments:
Firstly, this excuse about Rome wasn't built in a day is nonsense. We have been at it for nine years now; this is beyond ridiculous. A 'world class port' that has been idle for five months?? Come on, who are we fooling?
Secondly, even if we build the best port in the world, Gwadar is destined to fail because Balochistan is a repeat of 1971 East Pakistan. Blaming India, US, whomever misses the whole point. The question is why are the Baloch rebels cooperating with our enemies in the first place? The answer is the blatant ethnic bigotry so deeply ingrained in the Pakistani psyche that alienated first the Bengalis and now the Baloch. We are still in denial mode. We deny their legitimate complaint about exploitation; we dismiss them as foreign funded terrorists; and our only answer to their concerns is to quash them by force. Witness the comment below.
And for your information there are less than 8 million Baloch in Pakistan (a country of 185 million people) and not all Baloch live in Balochistan province. Pashtuns are becoming the majority in Balochistan province and the Pashtuns of Balochistan dont want to break away from Pakistan.
Bengalis made the largest ethnic group in Pakistan before 1971, our army could not control that large of a population back then.
Musharraf promised them that Gwadar would be the fulfillment of Balochistan's destiny and the Baloch people would see the rewards. Instead, the old story of exploitation and ethnic arrogance is repeated. The locals are sidelined by the unscrupulous sharks from other provinces. Connecting Gwadar to its own capital is an afterthought.
Even if Gwadar is operational eventually, it will be plagued by a legacy of bad blood and ethnic tensions. Unless the government makes amends with the Baloch people and addresses their concerns.
There is, of course, zero chance that they will do so, and every chance that 1971 will repeat again.