Context: Over the last few weeks,there have been continuous protests in Gwadar, Balochistan against mega development plans of the port city as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Background

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC): With the announcement of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2015, Gwadar has been showcased as the gateway to a new era of Chinese investments meant to change the fate of both Pakistan and the region as a whole.

• It is a part of China’s ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative to link China with Europe.
• The CPEC project would link Pakistan's southern Gwadar port in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China's western Xinjiang region.
• It also includes plans to create road, rail and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East.
• Gwadar: A small port town on the coastline of the Arabian Sea in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, has been in news since then.
• Billion-dollar projects: China has spent billions of dollars on building the port town, opening a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant, and building an international airport at the cost of $230 million, alongside other projects that come under the CPEC umbrella.
• Ignorance of the local demand: The authorities have continued to ignore the basic demands of the locals.
• Balochistan has the lowest access to drinking water, electricity, and even gas that is the main resource of the region.
• They still don’t have basic necessities, despite the influx of billions of dollars in Chinese investment.

Issues

• The marginalisation of the local people: They are arguing that not only are they being excluded, but their present livelihood has also been endangered.
• Deep-sea trawlers: The main means of livelihood for people in the region is fishing. They have become jobless.
• No political support: Locals expressed anger and disappointment that Pakistani government officials were not supporting their case and giving statements in favour of the Chinese fishermen, and demanded that the licences be cancelled.
• Strategically important project: The port development at Gwadar is perhaps the single most strategically important project of the CPEC, and Chinese involvement there predates the CPEC by at least a decade.
• Security check posts: One of the protesters’ demands is a reduction in the number of checkpoints which are due to the increased security presence meant to secure Chinese projects.

Significance of the protest

• Participation of women: Despite the severe conservatism of Balochistan, women protesters have come out in large numbers.
• Jamaat-e-Islami group: Another significant aspect of the protest is that it is led by a Jamat-e-Islami leader. The JI has traditionally been an ally of Pakistan’s military establishment.

Concerns of India and West

• Dual-purpose port for use by the Chinese Navy: India has been concerned that Gwadar, which gives China strategic access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, is not just being developed as a trade entrepot but as a dual-purpose port for use by the Chinese Navy.
• Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region: It is intended to expand Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region alongside Kyaukpyu in Myanmar and Hambantota in Sri Lanka.
• Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK): India has protested to China over the CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
• The USA is concerned too: With vital military interests in West Asia, the US too is concerned about the Chinese presence in Gwadar.
• Secret Chinese military base: The recent discovery of a secret Chinese military base in the UAE can only heighten the concerns.

Road Ahead

• More local employment: More people from Gwadar should be employed by the Chinese company developing the port.

End to trawler mafia regime: The government should crackdown on foreign “trawler mafia” who are stripping the Gwadar Sea of its marine resources.  

• Gwadar fishermen had given up their fishing spots for the development of the port after assurances that it would greatly improve their economic condition.Their existing condition was only worsening because of the unequal competition with the Chinese fishing vessels, which were also harming the ecosystem.