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Gwadar: An unfulfilled dream

Gwadar needs a few good schools at the lower level, and perhaphs a university or college. This will create self sufficient citizens that work to better their own country.
 
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Gop needs to adress the problems f the locals(makranis).............also gwadar doesnt have any insurgency problem........Almost all of the ppl r fishermen there.
 
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There is a large and modern port of Chahbahar barely a stone’s throw from Gwadar on the Iranian side of the border. Chahbahar was financed by the Indians whereas Gwadar by the Chinese. Both ports are vying for the supposedly lucrative transit trade to the Central Asian countries. I have already stated in my earlier post that making a modern port will not on its own create an economic boom. Both the ports suffer from lack of railway connection to the business hubs. However, as usual, with my countrymen having the habit of exaggerating the possible benefits; it was assumed that Gwadar port will create an economic boon as soon as it is in operation.

I would define Central Asian countries as Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Looking at the map one finds that Afghanistan sits bang in the middle between these countries and Pakistan. The same is true in case of Iran except that Iran has a long border with Turkmenistan.

For any port to reap full benefits of the transit trade good road and rail connection between Quetta and Gwadar and between Chahbahar and Mashhad is required.

I would put my money on Chahbahar in the short term as Iran is more stable and has better relations with Afghanistan; also India is likely to use her clout with Afghanistan in favour of Chahbahar. A rail connection of Chahbahar with the Iranian Railways is already planned. Only problem is that US is hell-bent upon denying this opportunity to Iran as this will increase Iran’s political influence in the region.

Gwadar would eventually get some benefit but we need a very good and safe road connection to Quetta. Diverting an occasional vessel to Gwadar is not going to improve the situation. Political tug of war between the province and the centre created so much noise that real estate bubble of the Musharraf era is already burst.

With the BLA insurgency in the central Baluchistan and Taliban enjoying support of the conservative section of Pakistan’s population thus blowing up goods convoys to Afghanistan; regret to say that Gwadar is likely to remain an unfulfilled dream for some time.
 
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@niaz... good post and some nice retrospectives.

The key to a good and profit making port will be the rail connectivity. But if the Chinese are really interested on maximizing the potential, they would be the ones also interested in building a rail link to Gwadar. So until that happens, Gwadar will continue to maintain status quo and wouldn't be making profits anytime soon. Additionally a port also serves as an export point. Local industries near to a port also add to the economic potential and viability of a port.

If local industries were to setup around the port, it would also help the profitability of the port to quite an extent.
 
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There is a large and modern port of Chahbahar barely a stone’s throw from Gwadar on the Iranian side of the border. Chahbahar was financed by the Indians whereas Gwadar by the Chinese. Both ports are vying for the supposedly lucrative transit trade to the Central Asian countries. I have already stated in my earlier post that making a modern port will not on its own create an economic boom. Both the ports suffer from lack of railway connection to the business hubs. However, as usual, with my countrymen having the habit of exaggerating the possible benefits; it was assumed that Gwadar port will create an economic boon as soon as it is in operation.

I would define Central Asian countries as Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Looking at the map one finds that Afghanistan sits bang in the middle between these countries and Pakistan. The same is true in case of Iran except that Iran has a long border with Turkmenistan.

For any port to reap full benefits of the transit trade good road and rail connection between Quetta and Gwadar and between Chahbahar and Mashhad is required.

I would put my money on Chahbahar in the short term as Iran is more stable and has better relations with Afghanistan; also India is likely to use her clout with Afghanistan in favour of Chahbahar. A rail connection of Chahbahar with the Iranian Railways is already planned. Only problem is that US is hell-bent upon denying this opportunity to Iran as this will increase Iran’s political influence in the region.

Gwadar would eventually get some benefit but we need a very good and safe road connection to Quetta. Diverting an occasional vessel to Gwadar is not going to improve the situation. Political tug of war between the province and the centre created so much noise that real estate bubble of the Musharraf era is already burst.

With the BLA insurgency in the central Baluchistan and Taliban enjoying support of the conservative section of Pakistan’s population thus blowing up goods convoys to Afghanistan; regret to say that Gwadar is likely to remain an unfulfilled dream for some time.



a good analysis, the pakistani conceptualisation of gwadar is a long long way from fruition, if at all realistic.

i dont think americans want the iranian or pakistani port to prosper, and i dont think iran and pakistan want each other to prosper, and at the same time i think china and india might be against each other in gwadar/chahbahar rivalry - so when you add WoT, terrorism and these rivalries i would be shocked if anything happened anytime soon.
 
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Pakistan. 0.1 million tons of fertiliser to be imported via Gwadar Port

Total 0.1 million tons fertiliser will be imported through Gwadar Port in the next 10 days, from February 20 to 28. This was stated by officials of the Ministry of Ports and Shipping on Saturday in the meeting Senate Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping which met here with Senator Gulshan Saeed in the chair at Parliament House.

Senators Dr Abdul Malik, Tariq Azim Khan, Dr Muhammad Ismail Buledi, and Almas Pareveen, the Secretary, Ministry of Ports and Shipping, the Chairman, Port Qasim and others attended the meeting. The Committee showed serious concern over the functioning and infrastructure of Gwadar Port and asked the Ministry to provide details of the agreement with Singapore Company.

The Secretary informed the Committee that 0.1 million tons fertiliser would be imported through Gwadar Port in next ten days of this month. He said that there is total of 298 acres land of Gwadar Port while 98 acres land would be further acquired.

He admitted that Gwadar Port is not properly functioning due to lack of facilities of roads, transportation and infrastructure. He said that only urea and wheat could be imported through this port. He said nowadays only fertiliser is being imported while Pakistan is in a position to export wheat. Dr Abdul Malik said that the government has acquired 2281 acres land on release for Singapore Company while 584 acres land would be more acquired.

He also claimed that Singapore Company which has signed agreement on Gwadar Port is near defaulter. He claimed that Grade 18 officer of the government has signed agreement with Singapore Company on Gwadar Port. The members of the Committee expressed concern over land of Gwadar Port and Port Qasim which has been given on release and demanded to the chairperson of Committee to summon the Finance Minister and the Chairmen of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

The chairperson has summoned the Finance Minister and the Chairman of FBR in next meeting. The chairperson also asked the Ministry to provide details of terms and conditions of signed agreement of the government with Singapore Company on Gwadar Port and releasing of land of ports. The Committee also expressed concern over damage to the roads due to transportation of Nato heavy containers and recommended to the government to sign an agreement with Nato forces for the construction of roads. The members seriously showed concern over the damaging of 50 percent roads due to heavy containers.

Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Chairman Vice Admiral Muhammad Shafi told the Committee that two companies have signed contract with Nato force for supply of goods to Afghanistan. He said that thousands of containers are coming in Pakistan through Port Qasim.

Tariq Azim expressed concern over the dallying of LNG project and said that this project should have been completed in 2009. He said that the country was already facing shortage of gas; especially many industries have been affected. The Chairman of Port Wasim told the Committee that this project was started by the previous government but it was stopped after 2007 due to filing case against it in the Apex Court.

He said that after the Supreme Court judgement, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources sent a summary to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister Secretariat referred this summary to Law Ministry, he said. The Law Ministry has recommended new bidding of this project, he said.
 
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Hopes remain alive in Gwadar … (BALOCHISTAN — X)
Posted by editor on December 12, 2010
By Amir Mateen

Gwadar—The Gwadar port was ambushed by a rocket attack this Sunday but the news went generally unnoticed in the Pakistan media. One reason was that the rocket fell short of a ship parked in the docks; nobody got injured, no damage was done to the port. Uninterrupted, the country remained busy in Eid celebrations.

This may just explain Balochistan’s dilemma. Islamabad betrays a nonchalant disregard for the threats faced by these distant but strategically important outposts. The rocket attack on the upcoming second biggest port of Pakistan may just indicate a possibility of accelerated action. More so because the Gwadar Port is about to shift gears after its command is, most likely, given to the Chinese in near future. Ironically, a rocket that is available in the border wastelands of Balochistan for as low as 50 dollars can threaten the prospects of a billion dollar project that is crucial to the global energy politics. A similar rocket attack, a failed one again, on the only five-star hotel in town halved its occupancy last month. In another related incident, two policemen got injured when they were attacked by gun fire while they were on a routine patrol during Eid holidays in Gwadar city.

Such sporadic happenings have a way of impacting public psyche even when the physical damage may not be much. And this might be the exact intention of the saboteurs in Balochistan. Local PPP intellectual, Rahim Zafar, aptly said that the scale of sporadic incidents may not be much, say in comparisons to earlier cycles of violence in the province, but it has definitely shattered the local nerves. The reasons for the chaos in Gwadar are no different from the rest of Balochistan. Besides the over-arching feelings of economic deprivation and political alienation, the larger issue is bad governance.

Journalist Robert Kaplan rightly points out that Islamabad’s attitude towards Balochistan is similar to how cowboys treated Native Americans in the wild West. Not a single culprit has ever been caught in about a dozen target killings in the last 14 months. DPO Abdul Ghafoor, a police ranker like former DSP Chief Minister Aslam Raisani, brags more about his being a cousin of the ‘kingmaker’ Provincial Minister Asim Kurd and less about his work. A political vacuum exists as the popular parties boycotted the last elections and MNA Yaqoob Bizenjo hardly comes to the area. Stories of corruption in transfers and postings, smuggling through permits and licenses abound.

Unfortunately, Gwadar is uniquely placed in Balochistan for its political awareness, culture of tolerance and grass root politics. Many agree that it is one place in the province which is, in relative terms, curable. The timing may be ripe for that.

Dr Allah Nazar of the separatist Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) holds a certain influence in Gwadar, particularly among its student cadres. But the murder of former Nazim Maula Baksh Dasti, which was owned by the BLF, has caused resentment against the separatists. Mekran politics, unlike the sardari system in Balochistan, rests on its intellect and humanism. Recently, a son of local politician, Shaukat Punjabi, was killed and almost most political parties participated in a joint protest. This is different from the rest of Balochistan where most Punjabis killings are not condoled or compensated. The free-spirited Mekranis love their music which is more attuned to Arabian beats than Indian ragas, the Gwadar fish and, most important, football. All of this is discussed on roadside cafes followed by no-holds-barred political discussion. Their collective interests remain focal point of their discourse. For instance, the ancestral fishing, from which the word Mekrani (meaning mahikhor) comes, recently came into conflict with the ever bustling smuggling trade. Gwadar, the whole region for that matter, thrives on smuggling of oil, CNG and tar coal from Iran largely through fishing trawlers. Oil spills during unloading spoils the fish harbor. Local fishermen are in revolt against the smuggling mafia which, by the way, has been an equal part of the local culture.

The same business concern makes the development of Gwadar and its port attractive for them, provided that their political concerns are addressed. Academic Kiran Chowdry quotes a local in her recent thesis, saying that “we don’t want be like those animals in a zoo that people from Punjab will come to watch in our homeland.”

Political activist agrees that the development of Gwadar is “a win-win situation; who does’nt want progress, we want our children to go to better schools and eat better food.”

Each ship brings about 500 trucks for unloading which roughly means the involvement of 1500 persons. The port can cater to only three ships simultaneously. “Gwadar at its maximum will require a whole city to provide labour to the shipping trade,” says GPA Director Shafi Mohammad. “The government pays extra for every truck because the trucks have to first go east towards Karachi before turning north.”

Experts believe Gwadar will become viable only when the linking road or railway are established, the foremost being the completion of Highway M8, which links the port city to Ratto Dero via Turbat, Pajngoor and Khuzdar.

Some locals suspect that the mafias in Karachi and Islamabad have deliberately delayed because “they do not want a cut in commissions from the KPT.”

All hopes rest on the Chinese takeover of the port. Locals hope that the new administration might also fulfill the promise of building a modern ship harbor. “Our tuna goes to Iran for packaging and is then sold in Mekran,” said Rahim Zafar. “The banned trawlers from Karachi and Iran are stripping our fishing fields dry as they hunt in bredding seasons also.”

Others hope that a new deal has to be finalized for a fairer division of resources. All those plots grabbed by politician, bureaucrats, particularly in the picturesque Sanghar Scheme should be cancelled. The Navy should be forced to vacate the extra land on the see front and the army too kept to its limit. Land deals in Gwadar are a mess. “The 10000 acres available in Gwadar have been sold ten times over,” said DCO Pasand Khan Buledi. Former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ganged up with a mafia that included the then provincial government to distribute prime land among cronies for pennies. “A judicial probe should be conducted before new rules are formed,” opines Editor Huma Ali. “Gwadar remains as great as ever but it’s just the class of rulers that has changed.” More prophetic words there cannot be.

One can hear the drum beats of Alexander’s army marching back from India from Gwadar shores; hear the hooves of Mohammad Qasim’s camels or the fluttering of Portugese masts that sailed here 500 years ago. The people of Gwadar still use the techniques to build dhows that they learnt from the Greeks, Arabs or the Portugese. Will someone lead them to a shade of modernity.

(Dec 12, 2010)
 
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can india construct deep sea port ?? are there any deep water ports created by indians firm in india?? any data on them?
 
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Sorry, that's no excuse, Even a twelve year old child can open an atlas and see that Gwadar is in a remote location. That it will need road and rail links to connect it to the rest of Pakistan's transport network. Why was work not being done in parallel? What kind of idiot leaves this work till after the port is completed? And the city itself is still not complete. Basic sanitary facilities are nonexistent. The video shows the local people don't even have a sewage system. Where will the ordinary workers live? Will they all live in a 5-star hotel?

As for the real problem, the insurgency, I have already stated why the port is doomed unless the Baloch exploitation is redressed. All the road and rail links will be useless if the insurance risk premiums make the route prohibitively expensive. Worst case, we are looking at 1971. And this time it will be the West, not Iran or India, that will do the honors.

Well Gwadar port can aid Balochistan's economy they can earn a percentage of the revenue which the provincial government can use to invest in the province. Isn't this an answer to the "exploitation" felt by some? Some say not enough investment well when Federal Government does invest some still bicker. You can't have it both ways. Just crush the BLA, and resolve the grievances of the Balochis, one way is to support Gwadar project.

As for rail roads and motorways, from what I understand there is a motorway connecting Karachi and Gwadar across the Makhran coast. Also afaik there are roads or motorway in progress connecting Gwadar with Quetta. What Pakistan must do and I think China is already planning this or this could be under construction I'm not sure, but a railroad connecting Gwadar with China a railroad connecting CA countries with Gwadar is also needed. Several CA countries have expressed interest in Gwadar. Getting Afghanistan to use Gwadar should also be done, force hand if needed.
 
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just saw news on PTV....... Gwadar IT college was inaugurated by Gen Kayani today. gud step...... :)
 
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Balochistan to get representation in Pak Army as per population share: COAS Kayani

GWADAR, April 18 (APP): Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said on Monday that youths of Balochistan would be recruited in Pakistan Army according to percentage of their province’s share in the total population of the country.He said this while addressing a ceremony of Gwadar Institute of Technology here.He said that 4000 Baloch youths had completed their training and joined the Pakistan Army while during the current year more 5000 youths would be recruited in the Army. The recruitment process has already been started in this regard, he added.He said that the rules and regulations in connection with the recruitment process, would be relaxed for youths of Balochistan so that maximum people could join the Pakistan Army from this province.
The COAS said that the Balochistan Chief Minister was responsible for maintaining peace in the province and Balochistan Frontier Corps would soon be replaced with the Army battalion, deployed in Sui area of Dera Bugti district.
He said there was no military operation being carried out in any part of the province.
“Development and integrity of Pakistan links with the progress and prosperity of Balochistan as this province is rich with natural resources of natural gas, oil, coal and minerals,” Gen. Kayani said adding that there was a need of technology and skilled manpower to get benefits from these natural resources.
He said the Pakistan Army with collaboration of the Government of Balochistan, had established technical and vocational training institutes in the province to equip the local youths with knowledge of latest technology.
He said that about 4500 youths of Balochistan had completed their vocational courses at the institutes being run under the supervision of the Pakistan Army, adding that more 3600 youths of the province would join their classes at these technical institutes from this year.
He said the Pakistan Army was going to establish Army Medical College, Institute of Mineralogy and Cardiac Treatment Center in Quetta in order to equip the Balochistan’s youths with higher education in relevant fields.
He said the Army Medical College would be established besides Combined Military Hospital Quetta where students would get admission to four-year MBBS.
“During my recent visit to Taxila Heavy Complex, I was informed that 150 students hailing from Balochistan and FATA have been getting technical education there,” he recalled.
He said that students of Balochistan and FATA studying at the Army-run institutes would be provided jobs in National Logistic Cell, FWO and other Armed Forces’ institutions.
He said the Army had been playing its role in Chamalang coal project, Kasa Hill marble project and others in order to put the economy of the country and the province of Balochistan on track of development and to make the local people prosperous.
He hoped the Balochistan government would extend its cooperation to the Pakistan Army to improve natural mines and mineral resources of Dukki and Musakhail areas.
“No defense of a country can be strengthened and made undefeatable until its people cooperate with their Armed Forces in letter and spirit,” he observed.
Highlighting the features of the Gwadar Institute of Technology, he said that about 90 students of the province would get admission to four-month courses including boat manufacturing, auto-mechanic, carpenter and auto-electrician at TCC Wing of the institute.
He said that at GIT Wing of the institute, about 80 students of Balochistan would start their three-year courses including Industrial Electronics and Food Preservation Processing.
“These students will be given free of cost facilities including hostel, food and monthly Rs 2000 stipend,”
he added.
Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Aslam Khan Raisani, Commander Southern Command Lt. Gen. Javed Zia, Balochistan Ministers including Tahir Mehmood Khan, Cap (retd) Abdul Khaliq Achakzai, and Mir Shah Nawaz Marri and other officials were present on the occasion.

Associated Press Of Pakistan ( Pakistan's Premier NEWS Agency ) - Balochistan to get representation in Pak Army as per population share: COAS Kayani
 
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just saw news on PTV....... Gwadar IT college was inaugurated by Gen Kayani today. gud step...... :)

where the heck is political leadership.. ?? Is this the job of Army?? :disagree:

Only because of such steps Balochistan is becvoming neglectied and neglected... and giving room to other powers to intervene and help rebels in the name of their rights and we at the brink of another (naooz o biAllah) 1971.. :angry:
 
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where the heck is political leadership.. ?? Is this the job of Army?? :disagree:

Only because of such steps Balochistan is becvoming neglectied and neglected... and giving room to other powers to intervene and help rebels in the name of their rights and we at the brink of another (naooz o biAllah) 1971.. :angry:

I think its because the politicians and other private investors fear that whatever they do to help the gwadar people like schools, colleges, etc.. it will be attacked, and therefore if the Army is there the security will already be provided and these attacks will probably won't happen.
 
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