The Chinese have arrived
After a botched attempt to poise the Gwadar port as among the region’s most valuable ones, mainly due to an oversight of details, incompetence, lack of interest and an outright clash on who owes what who by the government and Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), who was given the contract to exploit its maximum potential, the government of Pakistan has handed over the port’s operational control to China, much to the chagrin of quite a few international powers. The port that was supposed to change Pakistan’s commercial activities has remained virtually inactive due to non-fulfillment of commitment by the PSA and a lack of road infrastructure to connect it with county’s major commercial and industrial cities.
However, Islamabad hopes that this would change as a multi-billion dollar deal with China is expected to see port’s development work sped up and a healthy increase in country’s trade and commerce activities. Situated at the cross-junction of international sea shipping and oil lines between the Middle East and the rest of the world, including China, Gwadar can play a crucial role not only in Pakistan’s development but also as a hub for international trade activities, the fruits of which could catapult Balochistan into a hyperdrive on the road to success.
What Pakistan should be careful about, though, is that it should make sure there were no let-ups in the deal between the two neighbouring countries, and that even minute details would be looked into to avoid repeat of what happened to the deal between the PSA and the government of Pakistan. The Supreme Court has already taken suo motu notice of PSA’s failure to deliver, and a second such failure might just push the project over the edge and dash down the hopes that the people of this country have from this project. What Pakistan has to ensure China and vice a versa, is that both would uphold their end of the deal. Only then there is a chance the project would yield benefits.
