Feasibility of Gwadar Port

While the government of Pakistan has invested billions of rupees in constructing Gwadar Port for the development of Balochistan province over a long period of time, it has failed to evoke the widely-anticipated response from the "users of the facility". As such, it was only natural that questions about the feasibility of this important project would be asked at some stage. According to reliable reports, in a recent meeting to review the progress on the project, the Planning Commission assured the Balochistan government of its full support for making the Gwadar port fully functional and completing the necessary road network to link it with other parts of the country, but asked the provincial government to review the port's feasibility, keeping in view its economic viability. The Deputy Chairman Planning Commission is reported to have remarked that "most development projects in the country have been launched without properly preparing a feasibility report" and it was imperative to ensure that Gwadar port was a viable project instead of making ambitious claims and proposals. He also asked officials of the Gwadar Port Authority to explain why the Singapore Port Authority, which had been awarded contract for port operations by the Musharraf government, for 40 years, was not working at the project. The security situation and other matters related to the project were also discussed in that meeting. Chief Minister of Balochistan is reported to have complained about the non-implementation of the Balochistan package and the failure of the Federal government to issue the notification for appointing the Balochistan Chief Minister as the Chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority. Although, the above episode about the feasibility of Gwadar Port may appear to be rather insignificant or uncalled for, especially at a time when the project is almost complete, it is very pregnant for a number of reasons. To put it rather mildly, the remarks of the Deputy Chairman have simply strengthened the prevailing perception that political considerations rather than economic imperatives greatly determine the choice of certain important and highly expensive projects in the country and the Planning Commission is an almost irrelevant entity in such cases. Such a situation is of course against the long-term economic interest of the country, because the country's scarce resources are largely frittered away and not used in an optimal fashion. The harmful effects of such poor economic management could be visualised from the fact that the Gwadar Port was not an isolated case, but a number of other projects have also been thrust upon the nation on non-economic grounds. Add to this other entirely politically motivated projects like Sasti Roti, green cabs and houses and rampant corruption in the system to estimate the extent of wastage of resources and their sub-optimal utilization in aggregate terms. Some of the projects were so badly planned and carelessly executed to please certain circles that the country is now known as a graveyard of projects. It is really mind-boggling that while this was happening, the Planning Commission looked the other way or was a silent spectator all along and did not bother to raise questions about the justification of its existence. There is absolutely no doubt that the situation has to change drastically, if economic development and welfare of ordinary people are the real goals. For this, feasibility of all the competing projects have to be prepared and compared purely on professional grounds and only those projects have to be selected for completion which promise the highest yields for the country's economy and are within our means. Gwadar Port may not pass such a test but we are happy that somebody in the Planning Commission has finally spoken his mind, probably with a view to optimising the potential of a country's resources, reversing the old order and placing the economy on a sound footing. Ill-conceived projects, and therefore injudicious spending, are always an abstraction.