GWADAR has been a fishing village since history began. Its location on the southern coast of modern Balochistan meant that its inhabitants had to live off locally caught fish and depend on seasonal showers for potable water.

The tribes there encountered by Alexan­der the Great during his retreat across Makran in 325 BC were described by his historian Arrian as Ichthyophagi or fish-eaters — “a hairy race, with long nails with which they used to divide their fish, and they used for weapons wooden pikes hardened with fire”.

Alexander led one group of his troops over land while his admiral Nearchus took the rest in ships sailing along the coast. Ale­xander, misled by scouts, lost his way. Along with his troops, he had to endure a summer’s heat and a punishing scarcity of water. According to one account, Alexander when offered a helmet containing precious water, poured it into the sand “in front of his men, rather than drink when they could not”.

Makran had not changed much even 2,000 years later. Surveying it in 1896, the English geographer Col T.H. Holdich wondered “what manner of madness could have induced him to select such a route”. Holdich recognised the descendants of the ‘fish-eaters’, remarking that not only did they eat fish but “fish enters into the food of dogs, cats, camels and cattle”.

Could Gwadar fail and become another Hambantota?

Although its history offered nothing more than a seemingly unchanged continuity, Ma­­kran’s geography assumed a significan­ce for 20th-century superpowers. To them, the Arabian Sea became a paddling pool in which they could float their boats and play war games. The beachheads of Gwadar and Ormara assumed a new significance.

In March 1972, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as president, sent a proposal to US president Richard Nixon offering “port and tracking station facilities along the Arabian sea coast near Karachi”. Secretary of State W. Rogers advised Nixon that the US did not “envisage a need for such facilities but remained open to any specific proposals in port expansion”.

Bhutto persisted. Before his meeting with Nixon a year later in September 1973, Henry Kissinger briefed Nixon that Bhutto’s main motive in seeking a Balochistan port is probably “to help him bring more commerce and jobs and win more support in that backward, sparsely populated, chronically unstable, opposition-dominated province”.

During their meeting, Nixon admitted to Bhutto that “the (Gwadar) port proposal that you made intrigued me. We cannot say anything definitive on this today [.] Dr Kissinger will look into this. So far, we have put everything in that area on Diego Garcia. It might be useful to have access to a port as well”.

Kissinger added two queries: “First is the construction. Second is the question of use. This second question becomes an issue only when the port comes into being. Even then, there is the difference between formal and informal use.”

Bhutto reassured them: “I am morally certain that a US presence would be justified in terms of Pakistani interests. I don’t say that it will not be an issue in Pakistan, but I believe I can manage it.”

The development of Gwadar found a resonance in Chinese premier Zhou Enlai’s mind. During a meeting in Beijing a few months later, Zhou Enlai told Kissinger: “We will be in great favour of your assisting Pakistan and building a naval port in Pakistan.”

Fifty years later, the tables have been turned. China has stepped forward and made Gwadar its own, leaving the US with its toehold in Diego Garcia. Hopes that Gwadar would replicate China’s success with Shenzhen (China’s first special economic zone and now an economic powerhouse) have been belied. The Bal­o­­ch complain: “Job promises were not met. Industrial promises were not met. The business opportunities for Pakistanis were not met. Of the promised nine special economic zones, not one is fully functional to date.”

Little benefit has trickled down to the local population in Gwadar. Worse, they are having to compete with marauding Chinese trawlers for their own fish.

Could Gwadar fail, become another Hambantota, the Chinese funded port in Sri Lanka sinking under heavy indebtedness?

Mao Zedong once said: “Success requires you to stand on your own feet.” He was silent about trying to succeed on borrowed crutches. He advised also about how to learn from others: “One is the dogmatic attitude of transplanting everything, whether or not it is suited to our conditions [.] The other attitude is to use our heads and learn those things that suit our conditions, that is, to absorb whatever experience is useful to us.” That is the attitude his people adopted.

All our governments have preferred Mao’s first option. They have always felt more comfortable riding on the back of the Chinese dragon.

The writer is an author.
www.fsaijazuddin.pk.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2024