IT has been some time that Gwadar became famous owing to all the talk of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The whole province of Balochistan, particularly Gwadar, was promised that it was going to be the game-changer. Everything was promised to the people, including the moon and then some more. Gwadar was going to be a world-class city, we were told. There has been some development in the area, for sure. But life for the people of Gwadar has not changed for the good. It has not even started to change.

Beyond the shimmering pictures we all see of a certain area of Gwadar lies the city of Gwadar but no one comes to take photographs of the city (as the one above)and the citizens. The port and various projects related to it continue to hog all the limelight and resources, while the larger city remains as useless for the authorities as it has ever been for their predecessors.

Life in Gwadar city is marked by lack of civic facilities, dust and pollution. It has everything that should have been eliminated long ago, and it has precious little of what should have been there in abundance, like, say, health, education, potable water, cleanliness, etc. People are dying owing to this deadly combination of what is there and what is missing.

When you see glossy pictures of Gwadar the next time, please also use your imagination to see how miserable life is beyond the ‘development project’ that is generally taken as Gwadar by many. It is not. People come to the Gwadar and go back praising how developed the area is, how nice is the highway, how beautiful is the sunset, how glowing is the sunrise, and of course there is a picturesque cricket stadium now as well.

All this is the façade beyond which live the local people who have no right to even argue with anyone about having some right to have a life reasonably facilitated in view of all the mega projects that are, and will be, built on their soil.

I urge all concerned to stop promising us the moon anymore. If you can do one thing, improve the quality of life in Gwadar city from its current sub-human existence to semi-human level. At least do something to save lives of people who are dying of various diseases and poverty.

M. Irfan
Hub. Balochistan

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2021