Gwadar's new China-financed international airport, built at a cost of $240 million fully by the Chinese government, sits finished since October 2024 yet no passengers visit and no flights depart. Located in the port city of Gwadar, within Pakistan's mineral-rich but underdeveloped Balochistan province, the airport's enormity dramatically contrasts with the daily hardships of the city's 90,000 people.
The new Gwadar International Airport with a capacity of 400,000 passengers per year is one of the larger China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) schemes, a multi-billion-dollar project designed to link China's northwestern Xinjiang province to the Arabian Sea. While officials promised years ago great economic change, residents complain there's not much to show for it.
Gwadar is still short on basic infrastructure. The city isn't powered by Pakistan's national grid, using Iran electricity or solar panels instead. Clean drinking water continues to be a pressing concern. "This airport isn't for the people of Gwadar," opined Azeem Khalid, an expert in Pakistan-China relations. "It's for China to provide access and mobility for its people and interests."
Locals grow more and more alienated as Gwadar becomes a tightly fortified area. Security personnel and checkpoints rule the streets. Chinese workers and VIPs are accompanied by closed roads, while regular citizens are subject to constant ID checks. Journalists are kept under strict observation, and even mundane areas such as fish markets are off-limits for coverage.
The native residents, who are mostly ethnic Baloch, claim systemic marginalization and exclusion from any meaningful development. While the government boasts that 2,000 jobs have been created by CPEC, it's not known if they were offered to Baloch residents or individuals from other parts of Pakistan. "Not a single Gwadar resident was employed at the airport not even as a watchman," claimed Abdul Ghafoor Hoth of the Balochistan Awami Party.
Frustrations over unmet promises have sparked protests. In December, residents demonstrated for 47 consecutive days, demanding better access to electricity, water, and jobs. Authorities made pledges, but little has changed since.
The Balochistan tensions are not recent. The decades-long separatist insurgency has been fueled by a feeling of exploitation and not being autonomous. The scenario deteriorated after 2021, with attacks on the rise from groups such as the Baloch Liberation Army. Insecurity has caused setbacks to key projects, such as the opening of the airport, which was finally opened virtually by Pakistani and Chinese leaders in the absence of media or public.
Veterans such as 76-year-old Khuda Bakhsh Hashim remember a quiet past, when Gwadar belonged to Oman and survival was not hard to find. Nowadays, he says, people are agitating. "When a man has something to eat, why would he take the wrong road?" he asked.
Most in Gwadar desire CPEC to achieve success but on their terms. If local workers, vendors, and services are not integrated into it, experts say the advantages of development will continue to elude the Baloch people.
