Gwadar port ‘fully operational,’ official tells Pakistan National Assembly

This file photo, released on November 13, 2016, shows a general view of Gwadar port, some 700 km west of Karachi. (APP/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: Parliamentary Secretary for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Wajiha Qamar, on Wednesday informed the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament that the southwestern deep-sea port at Gwadar was “fully operational” and equipped to handle all kinds of cargo.
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.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered that 50 percent of all public sector cargo be brought to Pakistan through Gwadar. The instructions subsequently received cabinet approval in September.
“The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that Gwadar Port is currently fully operational, equipped to handle general cargo, containers, and other operations,” Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday. 
“Responding to a question during the Question Hour, Parliamentary Secretary Planning Development and Special Initiatives Wajiha Qamar said the Port accommodates vessels of up to 50,000 DWT [deadweight tonnage] and possesses the requisite infrastructure to support bulk cargo and container handling efficiently.”
She added that multiple shipments under the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement had been successfully processed at the port. 
In March this year, Pakistani security forces repulsed a gun and bomb attack by militants on a complex outside the strategic port of Gwadar, which killed all eight militants and two soldiers, officials said. In the same month, a suicide bomber killed five Chinese engineers traveling to a dam site in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Beijing has since publicly voiced concerns about the security of its workers and projects in Pakistan. 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 this August after a string of deadly attacks by separatist militants in the Balochistan in which over 50 people were killed.