Zunaira Qayyum, teen from impoverished Pakistani province, champions girls’ education globally

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has developed a new energy policy that will help the country attract $5 billion in investment through public-private partnerships, state-run media reported on Sunday, with the move expected to help create thousands of jobs and reduce reliance on imported fuel. 

Pakistan has aggressively pursued reforms in its energy sector, which has long struggled with financial strain due to circular debt, power theft and transmission losses. These problems have led to blackouts and high electricity costs in the South Asian country. 

Pakistan’s increased reliance on imported fuel has also drained its foreign exchange reserves, bringing the country to the brink of a sovereign default in 2023 before a last-gasp $3 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to the country’s rescue. 

“A new policy has been introduced for the development and prosperity of energy sector with the support of SIFC,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said in a report, referring to the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) body. 

“The policy will enable the energy sector to attract up to 5 billion dollars in investment and it will pave the way for 35 percent private investment in this sector.”

The report said that the main objective of the policy is to encourage public-private partnerships in the energy sector. 

A separate video released by the SIFC said the policy allows production and exploration companies to sell 35 percent of future gas discoveries to private entities through a comparative bidding process. 

The SIFC said the policy will help create thousands of jobs in Pakistan, boost gas production, help the country rely less on expensive imported fuels and accelerate its Gross Domestic Product growth. 

Pakistan constituted the SIFC, a hybrid civil-military body in June 2023 to attract international investment in agriculture, energy, livestock, tourism, mining and minerals, and other priority sectors. 

The SIFC has targeted mainly Gulf countries and has signed agreements worth billions of dollars since it was formed in 2023. 

GWADAR, Pakistan: With no passengers and no planes, Pakistan’s newest and most expensive airport is a bit of a mystery. Entirely financed by China to the tune of $240 million, it’s anyone’s guess when New Gwadar International Airport will open for business.
Located in the coastal city of Gwadar and completed in October 2024, the airport is a stark contrast to the impoverished, restive southwestern Balochistan province around it.
For the past decade, China has poured money into Balochistan and Gwadar as part of a multibillion dollar project that connects its western Xinjiang province with the Arabian Sea, called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC.
Authorities have hailed it as transformational but there’s scant evidence of change in Gwadar. The city isn’t connected to the national grid – electricity comes from neighboring Iran or solar panels – and there isn’t enough clean water.
An airport with a 400,000 passenger capacity isn’t a priority for the city’s 90,000 people.
“This airport is not for Pakistan or Gwadar,” said Azeem Khalid, an international relations expert who specializes in Pakistan-China ties. “It is for China, so they can have secure access for their citizens to Gwadar and Balochistan.”
Caught between militants and the military
CPEC has catalyzed a decadeslong insurgency in resource-rich and strategically located Balochistan. Separatists, aggrieved by what they say is state exploitation at the expense of locals, are fighting for independence – targeting both Pakistani troops and Chinese workers in the province and elsewhere.
Members of Pakistan’s ethnic Baloch minority say they face discrimination by the government and are denied opportunities available elsewhere in the country, charges the government denies.
Pakistan, keen to protect China’s investments, has stepped up its military footprint in Gwadar to combat dissent. The city is a jumble of checkpoints, barbed wire, troops, barricades, and watchtowers. Roads close at any given time, several days a week, to permit the safe passage of Chinese workers and Pakistani VIPs.
Intelligence officers monitor journalists visiting Gwadar. The city’s fish market is deemed too sensitive for coverage.
Many local residents are frazzled.
“Nobody used to ask where we are going, what we are doing, and what is your name,” said 76-year-old Gwadar native Khuda Bakhsh Hashim. “We used to enjoy all-night picnics in the mountains or rural areas.”
“We are asked to prove our identity, who we are, where we have come from,” he added. “We are residents. Those who ask should identify themselves as to who they are.”
Hashim recalled memories, warm like the winter sunshine, of when Gwadar was part of Oman, not Pakistan, and was a stop for passenger ships heading to Mumbai. People didn’t go to bed hungry and men found work easily, he said. There was always something to eat and no shortage of drinking water.
But Gwadar’s water has dried up because of drought and unchecked exploitation. So has the work.
The government says CPEC has created some 2,000 local jobs but it’s not clear whom they mean by “local” – Baloch residents or Pakistanis from elsewhere in the country. Authorities did not elaborate.
People in Gwadar see few benefits from China’s presence
Gwadar is humble but charming, the food excellent and the locals chatty and welcoming with strangers. It gets busy during public holidays, especially the beaches.
Still, there is a perception that it’s dangerous or difficult to visit – only one commercial route operates out of Gwadar’s domestic airport, three times a week to Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, located at the other end of Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coastline.
There are no direct flights to Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta, hundreds of miles inland, or the national capital of Islamabad, even further north. A scenic coastal highway has few facilities.
Since the Baloch insurgency first erupted five decades ago, thousands have gone missing in the province – anyone who speaks up against exploitation or oppression can be detained, suspected of connections with armed groups, the locals say.
People are on edge; activists claim there are forced disappearances and torture, which the government denies.
Hashim wants CPEC to succeed so that locals, especially young people, find jobs, hope and purpose. But that hasn’t happened.
“When someone has something to eat, then why would he choose to go on the wrong path,” he said. “It is not a good thing to upset people.”
Militant violence declined in Balochistan after a 2014 government counterinsurgency and plateaued toward the end of that decade, according to Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
Attacks picked up after 2021 and have climbed steadily since. Militant groups, especially the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, were emboldened by the Pakistani Taliban ending a ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
An inauguration delayed
Security concerns delayed the inauguration of the international airport. There were fears the area’s mountains – and their proximity to the airport – could be the ideal launchpad for an attack.
Instead, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang hosted a virtual ceremony. The inaugural flight was off limits to the media and public.
Abdul Ghafoor Hoth, district president of the Balochistan Awami Party, said not a single resident of Gwadar was hired to work at the airport, “not even as a watchman.”
“Forget the other jobs, how many Baloch people are at this port that was built for CPEC,” he asked.
In December, Hoth organized daily protests over living conditions in Gwadar. The protests stopped 47 days later, once authorities pledged to meet the locals’ demands, including better access to electricity and water.
No progress has been made on implementing those demands since then.
Without local labor, goods or services, there can be no trickle-down benefit from CPEC, said international relations expert Khalid. As Chinese money came to Gwadar, so did a heavy-handed security apparatus that created barriers and deepened mistrust.
“The Pakistani government is not willing to give anything to the Baloch people, and the Baloch are not willing to take anything from the government,” said Khalid.