A big mystery is surrounding the Pakistan's new Gwadar International Airport, entirely financed by China to the tune of $240 million, located in the coastal city of Gwadar and completed in October 2024.
For the past decade, China has injected money into Balochistan and Gwadar as part of a multibillion dollar project that connects its western Xinjiang province with the Arabian Sea, called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC.
Authorities have hailed it as transformational but there's scant evidence of change in Gwadar. The city isn't connected to the national grid - electricity comes from neighboring Iran or solar panels - and there isn't enough clean water, according to the AP.
An airport with a 400,000 passenger capacity isn't a priority for the city's 90,000 people.
Only one commercial route operates out of Gwadar's domestic airport, three times a week to Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, located at the other end of Pakistan's Arabian Sea coastline.
There are no direct flights to Balochistan's provincial capital of Quetta, hundreds of miles inland, or the national capital of Islamabad, even further north. A scenic coastal highway has few facilities.
'Airport for China':
"This airport is not for Pakistan or Gwadar," Azeem Khalid, an international relations expert who specializes in Pakistan-China ties told news agency AP. "It is for China, so they can have secure access for their citizens to Gwadar and Balochistan."
Members of Pakistan's ethnic Baloch minority say they face discrimination by the government and are denied opportunities available elsewhere in the country, charges the government denies.
Pakistan-China ties:
Pakistan, keen to protect China's investments, has stepped up its military footprint in Gwadar to combat dissent. The city is a jumble of checkpoints, barbed wire, troops, barricades, and watchtowers. Roads close at any given time, several days a week, to permit the safe passage of Chinese workers and Pakistani VIPs.
"Nobody used to ask where we are going, what we are doing, and what is your name," 76-year-old Gwadar native Khuda Bakhsh Hashim told AP. "We used to enjoy all-night picnics in the mountains or rural areas."
Hashim recalled memories, warm like the winter sunshine, of when Gwadar was part of Oman, not Pakistan, and was a stop for passenger ships heading to Mumbai. People didn't go to bed hungry and men found work easily, he said. There was always something to eat and no shortage of drinking water.
But Gwadar's water has dried up because of drought and unchecked exploitation. So has the work.
An inauguration delayed
Security concerns delayed the inauguration of the international airport. There were fears the area's mountains - and their proximity to the airport - could be the ideal launchpad for an attack.
Instead, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang hosted a virtual ceremony. The inaugural flight was off limits to the media and public.
Abdul Ghafoor Hoth, district president of the Balochistan Awami Party, said not a single resident of Gwadar was hired to work at the airport, "not even as a watchman."
(with AP inputs)
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Authorities have hailed it as transformational but there's scant evidence of change in Gwadar. The city isn't connected to the national grid - electricity comes from neighboring Iran or solar panels - and there isn't enough clean water, according to the AP.
An airport with a 400,000 passenger capacity isn't a priority for the city's 90,000 people.
Only one commercial route operates out of Gwadar's domestic airport, three times a week to Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, located at the other end of Pakistan's Arabian Sea coastline.
There are no direct flights to Balochistan's provincial capital of Quetta, hundreds of miles inland, or the national capital of Islamabad, even further north. A scenic coastal highway has few facilities.
'Airport for China':
"This airport is not for Pakistan or Gwadar," Azeem Khalid, an international relations expert who specializes in Pakistan-China ties told news agency AP. "It is for China, so they can have secure access for their citizens to Gwadar and Balochistan."Members of Pakistan's ethnic Baloch minority say they face discrimination by the government and are denied opportunities available elsewhere in the country, charges the government denies.
Pakistan-China ties:
Pakistan, keen to protect China's investments, has stepped up its military footprint in Gwadar to combat dissent. The city is a jumble of checkpoints, barbed wire, troops, barricades, and watchtowers. Roads close at any given time, several days a week, to permit the safe passage of Chinese workers and Pakistani VIPs."Nobody used to ask where we are going, what we are doing, and what is your name," 76-year-old Gwadar native Khuda Bakhsh Hashim told AP. "We used to enjoy all-night picnics in the mountains or rural areas."
Hashim recalled memories, warm like the winter sunshine, of when Gwadar was part of Oman, not Pakistan, and was a stop for passenger ships heading to Mumbai. People didn't go to bed hungry and men found work easily, he said. There was always something to eat and no shortage of drinking water.
But Gwadar's water has dried up because of drought and unchecked exploitation. So has the work.
An inauguration delayed
Security concerns delayed the inauguration of the international airport. There were fears the area's mountains - and their proximity to the airport - could be the ideal launchpad for an attack. Instead, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang hosted a virtual ceremony. The inaugural flight was off limits to the media and public.
Abdul Ghafoor Hoth, district president of the Balochistan Awami Party, said not a single resident of Gwadar was hired to work at the airport, "not even as a watchman."
(with AP inputs)
