Premier visits Gwadar

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, and three other Chief Ministers of Punjab, Sindh and NWFP are currently visiting Gwadar where they will attend a Federal Cabinet meeting in a cargo ship anchored in the Arabian Sea where they are expected to sign the historic National Finance Commission Award. It is the first visit to Gwadar by the Prime Minister and other Chief Ministers of three provinces expressing complete solidarity with the Government and people of Balochistan seeking massive national help to rehabilitate and rebuild the Provincial economy through a national reconciliation process in this trans Indus Province of Pakistan.

According to report, the Prime Minister had already inaugurated the Gwadar Jiwanri Section of the Coastal Highway linking it with the Iranian road network. It was the last leg of the Coastal Highway Project to connect the Pakistani side of the highway with the Iranian Coastal highway connecting Karachi with the Straits of Hormuz or with Bandar Abbas boosting trade links between Pakistan and Iran through the shortest route of coastal highway. Earlier, the Federal Government had completed the Coastal Highway section from Zero Point near Uthal to Gwadar and brought it in use to handle cargo from the deep water port of Gwadar. The Coastal Highway will now connect almost all the major 35 fishing settlements of Balochistan with rest of Pakistan making it convenient for the fishermen to sell their precious fish catch in any major fishing station of Balochistan—Oramra, Pasni, Gwadar, Jiwanri, Sonmiani, Damb or Karachi or export it to other countries using the port and air facilities available at Gwadar. Hopefully, the fishermen of Balochistan will be benefited from the completion of Coastal Highway. However, it is also hope that the Planning Commission will prepare blueprints for widening and improving the quality of coastal highway in near future reducing the number of casualties on this deadly highway.

The second most important function of the Prime Minister was the handing over keys of recently built quarters for the workers. Around 100 houses were built and keys were handed over to the workers by the Prime Minister at a simple ceremony in Gwadar which was attended by the Cabinet Ministers, Chief Minister and his colleagues present in Gwadar. The Government had planned to build 400 such houses in Gwadar for the work force and hand over the keys to them free of cost.

The third important function was regularization of services of 87 employees of the Gwadar Port Authority. They were given jobs some five years ago. Their services were regularize by the Prime Minister during his visit to Gwadar and formal letters to this effect were handed over to the employees in a simple ceremony which was also attended by the Chief Minister and Federal and Provincial Ministers present at Gwadar. Minister of State for Ports and Shipping, Sardar Nabil Gabol, played a key role in regularizing the services of the local employees, most of them with modest means.

The Prime Minister was given a formal briefing on development of future deep water port of Gwadar and its future development plan. Originally, Gwadar Port will have more than 70 berths instead of present four built with the Chinese loan and technical assistance. The Government is scheduled to grant the contract of second phase of port development to the Chinese Company that had built the four berths. The most crucial issue is linking Gwadar with the existing railway system of Pakistan and also connecting it with the landlocked countries of Central Asia. If the Government succeeds in linking Gwadar deep water port with the Central Asian countries through rail and road, it will attract the international trade to and from Central Asia earning at least 10 billion dollars a year as fee from transit trade facility. Gwadar is the shortest route connecting Central Asia with the rest of the world. The present route is used from Bandar Abbas port of Iran at the south of Straits of Hormuz to Central Asia with a distance of over 2800 kilometers while Turkmen Capital of Ashkabad is mere 1500 kilometers, almost half of the distance. It will save money and time both if Gwadar is used for transit trade with Central Asia. Hopefully, the planners of Pakistan will give top priority to the Gwadar development plan first expanding its infrastructure facility and also connecting it with Central Asia through Afghanistan if we are interested to take the country out of the present economic difficulties.