Pakistan cabinet orders 50% of wheat, sugar and fertilizer imports through Gwadar port

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chairs the meeting of the federal cabinet at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad on September 12, 2024. (Photo courtesy: PMO)

This file photo, taken on October 4, 2017, shows a general view of Gwadar port in Gwadar, Pakistan. (REUTERS/File)

• China Overseas Port Holding Company plans to eventually expand port’s capacity to up to 400 million tons of cargo per year
• Gwadar underutilized for import and export due to distance from marketplaces of the country, security and services availability

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal cabinet on Thursday approved directives to government agencies to source 50 percent of wheat, sugar and fertilizer imports through the southwestern deep sea port of Gwadar, state-run media reported.
Gwadar is on the Arabian Sea in the southwestern province of Balochistan, a mineral-rich region plagued by a decades-long separatist insurgency. China has invested heavily in the province, including by developing Gwadar, which is key to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that also encompasses infrastructure and energy projects and is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The China Overseas Port Holding Company (COPHC), which operationally handles Gwadar, plans to eventually expand the port’s capacity to up to 400 million tons of cargo per year. Long term plans for the port require a total of 100 berths to be developed by 2045. For now, Gwadar is underutilized for commercial import and export due to reasons such as distance from the marketplaces of the country, security and services availability.
Last month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered that 50 percent of all public sector cargo be brought to Pakistan through Gwadar. 
“The federal cabinet approved directives for all government agencies to ensure that 50 percent of their imports, such as wheat, sugar, and fertilizer, are accessed through the Gwadar Port,” Radio Pakistan said on Thursday after a meeting of the cabinet. “The cabinet also directed that the percentage of exports through Gwadar Port should be increased in the future.”
A sub-committee of the cabinet will be established to present a quarterly report on import and export activities at Gwadar, it said.
Beijing has publicly voiced concerns about the security of its workers and projects in recent months, particularly after March this year when a suicide bomber killed five Chinese engineers in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 
Militants have also previously attacked Chinese nationals and targeted projects, viewing China as a foreign invader trying to gain control of the region’s resources.
The start of operations at a Chinese-funded airport in Gwadar was also pushed back for a security review last month after a string of deadly attacks by separatist militants in the area in which over 50 people were killed.