Balochistan’s Awaran district is perhaps one of the poorest places on the face of the earth.

In some of its parts, residents don’t even have national identity cards. Thanks to the dilapidated Turbat-Awaran Road, it was once the junction between Makran and Karachi. The historic trade route connected it with Turbat.

Until 2004, the Turbat-Awaran Road would brim with traffic and economic activities. In fact, residents of Gwadar would use this road to travel to Karachi until 1990. No wonder there were a number of petrol pumps, restaurants, tea stalls, tyre shops and garages along the road. It connected these two districts with Lasbela and Karachi.

Area residents are of the view that economic activities along the Turbat-Awaran Road came to nought following the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway in 2004. It was built in view of the Gwadar Port. The highway connects Karachi directly with Gwadar. Now Turbat residents also use this highway, abandoning the Turbat-Awaran Road forever.

Now only made-in-Iran Zamyad vehicles loaded with Iranian oil and diesel use the dilapidated Turbat-Awaran Road. There’s hardly any other traffic on this road. “There’s now darkness all around this road,” said Barkat Bismil Baloch of Awaran. Owing to its poor condition and lack of traffic, according to Mr Baloch, one cannot use it at night.

Economic activities along the Turbat-Awaran Road came to nought following the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway in 2004

He’s a witness to the gradual abandonment of the road as restaurants and other economic activities closed down following the completion of the Makran Coastal Highway during Gen Musharraf’s rule. “In the past, one could find some business activity after every 15 kilometres while travelling on the road,” said Mr Baloch. “Unlike the past, there are now only a handful of tea stalls on this road. These are frequented by the drivers of Zamyads.”

Awaran is also an insurgency-hit district where Baloch separatists are fighting the state for about a decade and a half. Official sources say Karachi was not connected with Gwadar via Awaran for two reasons. One, the distance between Karachi and Gwadar would have been longer; and two, the fifth Baloch insurgency had started rearing its head in the early 2000s in Awaran and Kech (Turbat) districts. There’s hardly any population around the Makran Coastal Highway.

But a former administrative official from Awaran holds a different opinion. According to him, the insurgency began to gain momentum in the Awaran-Turbat belt because residents lost their livelihoods as economic activities diminished in their area. “This road provided the locals with a source of livelihood,” he said.

Most of Awaran’s residents own agricultural lands and cultivate vegetables. But the road has now been abandoned for almost two decades. According to Arif Baloch, a resident of Awaran, farmers can no longer transport their produce to Karachi or anywhere in Balochistan owing to the pitiable condition of the road.

This is why, he says, vegetables and other farm items from Awaran never reach markets in time, causing a financial loss to the local farmers. “The state of the Awaran road is deplorable,” he says. “The department concerned in Awaran doesn’t bother to do repair work on it.”

Like the previous governments, the current provincial government seems little bothered about the economic conditions in Awaran. However, a senior government official involved in federal and CPEC-related projects in Balochistan says the impression about the government’s apathy is unfounded. “The Turbat-Awaran Road was abandoned owing to the poor security situation, not the construction of the coastal highway,” he said.

According to him, two separate schemes are part of the Public Sector Development Programme for 2019-20. The first one involves the construction of the remaining portion of M8 Motorway i.e. Hoshap-Kolwa-Awaran-Khuzdar. It will cover not only Awaran but also Khuzdar. The government will construct it after the situation gets back to normal in this area. The second scheme involves the Bela-Jhal Jao Road, which will connect Awaran with Lasbela.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, September 16th, 2019