Paki Journo - Reporting For US Press - Pessimistic About Gwadar Development
Apr 30 2016, 6:10 am ET
Gwardar Port Project Reveals China's Regional Power Play
by Wajahat S. Khan
GWADAR, Pakistan — A 30-by-45-foot Chinese flag draping the port authority building here projects an unmistakable message: Pakistan and China are now self-declared "iron brothers" and "all-weather friends."
Taller than mountain, deeper than the ocean blah, blah, blah
Situated on a barren, hammerhead-shaped peninsula in the south of insurgency-ridden Balochistan — and just northeast of the strategically important Straits of Hormuz — Pakistan's generals and China's politicians predict the development of Gwadar will be a game-changer.
Gwadar "is poised to become one of the most important and modern cities of the Middle East, West Asia and the South Asia" as a "gateway port for Pakistan and ... a world-class maritime hub," according to a Chinese handout at a networking seminar held in Gwadar recently.
So the few dozen Chinese engineers holed up in the Pearl Continental — the only five-star hotel in the vicinity — could be poised to help reset the balance of power in the region.
This establishment journo is also known for his bombastic pronouncements !
But creating this "great monument of Pakistan-China friendship," as the local authority calls it, won't be simple or straightforward. Building the corridor of roads, railways and pipelines from northwest China to Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast will be a huge challenge in a country where Islamist militants and separatist gunmen are a constant menace.At the moment, Gwadar is a fishing city of 120,000 that's closer to the Iranian coast than it is to any major Pakistani city. It has little gas and no water, few buildings more than one story in height.
All these words are for the benefit of his American audiences/ readers as all of these things are well known to the Aam Abduls !
Locals aren't all sure that the plans crafted by Pakistan's generals and China's politicians will help improve their lives.In the city's old fishing harbor, angry fishermen huddle every evening under a concrete shed strewn with nets. They smoke hashish and debate what Islamabad and Beijing are thinking, and what cost they will have to bear in this barren peninsula.
"Will they let us keep our land? Will they build us a new harbor once they build a highway here, like they plan to? What will happen to our generations-old tradition of living where you fish?" asked Mehran Mehdi, the head of the local fishermen's group."Our boats are rotting and are wallets are empty and our water pipes are dry," he said as he smoked a smuggled Iranian cigarette and toddlers played with stray dogs in Gwadar's East Bay behind him. "Development is good, China is our great friend, this CPEC thing sounds amazing, but don't forget that this is our land, first."
No mention of the insurgency going on in the hinterland surrounding this "fishing village"
Lt. General Amer Riaz, the powerful military commander who watches over Balochistan, is tasked with ensuring that Gwadar, CPEC and Pakistan's Chinese benefactors survive security threats. He tried to assuage these concerns.
"There is going to be no deprivation of the locals," he said. "Folks here have the first right to everything. We must ensure that there is transparency and justice in this very critical and expensive project."
Still, security is a nagging issue.
Downplaying the"civil war like situation" for his Amreeki readership !
For decades, separatist groups have waged an on-again, off-again violent campaign in Balochistan, where Gwadar is located, saying the state has failed to develop the impoverished region and instead plundered its natural resources.
And where young man are picked up at random, tortured and then thrown down from helicopters in remote areas !
So Pakistan is throwing men and weapons at the project./b]The main responsibility for securing the corridor, vital to Pakistan's long-term prosperity, lies with a new army division established in the last few months and numbering an estimated 20,000 troops.
Pakistani businessmen ...big opportunity in Gwadar worry that their country won't be able to deliver on its side of the bargain.
"The army will do what it does, which is to protect the Chinese," said Aftab Ali, a land developer with interests in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as he chomped on cigars and spring rolls in the Pearl Continental's marble lobby.
"The Chinese will do what they do, which is to make a killing and some great infrastructure. But the government can't even put up a website about CPEC or manage to get more than three flights a week here," said Ali, who was with his 20-something son to teach him the family business.
Companies from China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang signed deals worth about $2 billion with Pakistan earlier this month during a visit to Pakistan by Xinjiang's top official, who sought to cement ties with an important security partner.So hope and fear surround the huge project.Liu, a Chinese engineer working a short drive from the Pearl Continental in the West Bay that is to become a constellation of residential projects and resorts, also said he was hopeful but worried both about timelines and security."Look at these men," he said pointing to around 15 security personnel deployed to guard some 30 local construction workers and the Chinese contractors."They are all OK," said Liu, who did not want to share his last name. "The army keeps me safe, the police keeps the locals safe, but how can we expect to build such a big project with such a security problem? And if I finish this school by June, like I'm supposed to, will the children who study here be safe?"
IMHO all this hoopla surrounding the so-called CPEC -"game changer" project is wrongly predicated on the assumption that the locals can be "controlled" and the benefits will mostly go to them.
Labour – the UK equivalent of the Democrats- have chosen Sadiq Khan, a left-wing human rights lawyer who has been a member of the House of Commons since 2005.
...not to mention his "standing"!
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