Gwadar


Gwadar is a port city on the southwestern coast of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is on the shores of the Arabian Sea, opposite Oman, and had a population of over 90,000 in 2017 census. It was an overseas possession of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman from 1783 to 1958, when it was purchased by Pakistan. It is about southwest of Turbat. The sister port city of Chabahar in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province is about to the west. On 2 April 2021, Gwadar was declared the winter capital of Balochistan.
Founded in the late 17th century as a fishing settlement, Gwadar became a regional trade hub within the Omani Empire in the 20th century before being ceded to Pakistan. Modest investment from China helped accelerate Gwadar's development from 2013 to 2020 when the city started to develop its economy. In 2025, overall investment reached 1 billion USD.
The main industrial concern is a fish-processing factory.
Gwadar came in the focus of attention after the Kargil War when Pakistan felt the need of having a military naval port and the Karachi-Gwadar Road was built for defence purposes. For most of its history, Gwadar was a small to medium-sized settlement with an economy largely based on artisanal fishing. The strategic value of its location was first recognized in 1954 when it was identified as a suitable site for a deep-water port by the United States Geological Survey at the request of Pakistan while the territory was still under Omani rule. Until 2001, the area's potential to be a major deep-water port remained untapped under successive Pakistani governments, when construction on the first phase of Gwadar Port was initiated in 2007. The first phase cost $248 million. The port initially remained underutilized after construction for a variety of reasons, including lack of investment, security concerns, and the Government of Pakistan's failure to transfer land as promised to the port operator, Port of Singapore Authority.
In April 2015, Pakistan and China announced their intention to develop the $46 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, which in turn forms part of China's One Belt, One Road initiative. Gwadar features heavily in CPEC, and is envisaged to be the link between the One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road project. $1.153 billion worth of infrastructure projects will be invested into the city as part of CPEC, with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep-water seaport. The city will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar–Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project. Despite concerns over the United States sanctions on Iran, Pakistan is going ahead with the construction of a pipeline from the Iranian border to Gwadar as of 2024. This is partly to avoid contractual penalties and partly to avoid overreliance on the Gwadar Coal–Power Plant which requires imported coal. In addition to investments directly under the aegis of CPEC in Gwadar city, the China Overseas Port Holding Company in June 2016 began construction on the $2 billion Gwadar Special Economic Zone, which is being modelled on the special economic zones of China. In September 2016, the Gwadar Development Authority published a request for tenders for the preparation of expropriation and resettlement of Old Town Gwadar.

Etymology

The word "Gwadar" is a combination of two Balochi words – gwát meaning wind and dar meaning gateway or door, thus Gwadar means "the gate of wind".

History

Ancient

The inhabitation of Gwadar, like most of Balochistan, appears to be ancient. The area shows inhabitation as early as the Bronze Age with settlements around some of the area's oasis. It is from this settlement pattern that the word Makran, the original name of Balochistan, is derived. For a period, it was a region of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It is believed to have been conquered by the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. The capital of the satrapy of Gedrosia was Pura, which is thought to have been located near the modern Bampūr, in Iranian Balochistan. During the homeward march of Alexander the Great, his admiral, Nearchus, led a fleet along the modern-day Makran coast and recorded that the area was dry, mountainous, and inhabited by the "Ichthyophagoi" 'fish-eaters', an ancient Greek rendering of the ancient Persian phrase "Mahi Khorana," which has itself become the modern word "Makran". After the collapse of Alexander's empire the area was ruled by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander's generals. The region then came under Mauryan rule around 303 BCE, after Seleucus made peace with Emperor Chandragupta and ceded the territory to the Mauryans.
The descendants of the original inhabitants are known as Med people, They were mentioned in the early Muslim historiography as seafarers; some of them were pirarea as Bawarij in the Indian Ocean from their harbors in Debal, Kutch and Kathiawar, to as far as the mouth of river Tigris and Ceylon. Today they are integrated and speak Baloch and Urdu. They are related to the early Sindhi peoples of Makran such as the Jadgals.

Omani rule

until the Arab-Muslim army captured Makran in CE 643 and the area was contested by various powers. This was then followed by almost two centuries of local rule by the various Baloch tribes. The city was visited by Ottoman Admiral Seydi Ali Reis in the 1550s and mentioned in his book Mirat ul Memalik, 1557. According to Seydi Ali Reis, the inhabitants of Gwadar were Baloch and their chief was Malik Jelaleddin, son of Malik Dinar.
In the 15th century the Portuguese conquered parts of India and Oman. They planned to proceed with annexation of the coastal area of Makran. They attacked Gwadar under the leadership of Vasco da Gama, but under the supervision of Commander Mir Ismaheel Baloch, the Portuguese were defeated by the Baloch. A few times the Portuguese looted and set the coastal villages on fire, but they failed to capture Gwadar. Cannons of the Portuguese army were found lying near the Central Jail of Gwadar. The grave of Mir Ismaheel Baloch is situated near the Mountain of Batal Gwadar, constructed by Mir Ismaheel Baloch himself during life. He died in 1468, heirless.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the Khan of Kalat, Nasir Khan I Ahmadzai, granted suzerainty over Gwadar to Sultan bin Ahmad, the ruler of Muscat. When the sultan subsequently retook Muscat, he was to continue his rule in Gwadar by appointing a wali. This wali was then ordered to subjugate the nearby coastal town of Chabahar. The Gwadar fort was built during Omani rule. In the middle of the 18th century, Nasir Khan captured Gwadar and its surrounding areas after defeating the Gichki Baloch tribe and included it in the Khanate of Kalat. However, realizing that maintaining control of the area will be difficult without the support of the Gichkis, Nasir Khan entered into an agreement with the local Gichki Chief, which allowed the Gichkis to maintain administrative control of the area by establishing their own separate state of Makran, in return for furnishing half the collected revenues to Kalat. This arrangement continued till 1783. When Saiad Sultan fell out with his brother, the ruler of Muscat, and asked for help, Nasir Khan handed over Gwadar, as part of his share of revenues, to Saiad Sultan for his maintenance with the understanding that the area be returned to Kalat, when Saiad Sultan acquires the throne. Saiad Sultan ascended to the throne of Muscat in 1797 but never returned Gwadar enclave to Kalat. The ensuing struggle between the heirs of the Sultan and Khan of Kalat for possession of Gwadar, allowed the British to intervene. Telegraph lines were later extended into the town courtesy of the British. During the Omani rule various groups settled in Gwadar from Sindh such as the Al Lawati which predominantly settled in Oman proper and Muslim Kanjar people who escaped British to Gwadar to escape their persecution for their nomadic lifestyle. The main two Wali of Gwadar were Saif Bin Ali and Ehsan Azim also written as from 1783–1958.
The British after extracting concessions from the Sultan for the use of the area facilitated Muscat retaining Gwadar. Later on, the British claimed that the area was granted to the Sultan by Mir Nasir, however, local accounts and the declassified documents of that time challenge this claim. From 1863 to 1879, Gwadar was the headquarters of a British Assistant Political Agent. Gwadar was a fortnightly port of call for the British India Steamship Navigation Company's steamers and included a combined Post & Telegraph Office.

Pakistan

In 1947, Makran acceded to the newly created Dominion of Pakistan and was made a district – but Gwadar at that time was not included in Makran. In 1958, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Feroz Khan Noon and his wife Viqar-un-Nisa Noon were able to convince the British Government to hand over Gwadar to Pakistan. On September 8, 1958, Oman finally handed over Gwadar to Pakistan after Prince Karim Aga Khan IV made a contribution of around $3 million USD. It was given the status of a Tehsil of Makran district. On 1 July 1977, Makran District was upgraded into a division and was divided into three districts of Turbat, Panjgur and Gwadar.
Gwadar underwent major development from 2002 to 2007. In 2002, Pakistan's National Highway Authority began construction of the 653 km-long Makran Coastal Highway linking Gwadar with Karachi via Pasni and Ormara and onwards with the rest of the National Highways of Pakistan, which was completed in 2004. In 2003, the Gwadar Development Authority was established to oversee the planning and development of Gwadar and Gwadar Industrial Estate Development Authority was established to promote industrial activities in mega port city of Gwadar. In 2004, NHA began construction of the 820-km long M-8 motorway linking Gwadar with Ratodero in Sindh province via Turbat, Hoshab, Awaran, and Khuzdar and onwards with the rest of the Motorways of Pakistan. In 2006, the Gwadar Development Authority conceived, developed, and adopted a 50-year Master Plan for Gwadar, which was inspired by the Chinese port city of Shenzhen. In 2007, the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan acquired to construct a new greenfield airport, the New Gwadar International Airport, at an estimated cost of US$246 million. It is expected to be operational by 2025.
On 3 June 2022, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the 19.49 km, six-lane Gwadar East Bay Expressway, which was developed as an early harvest project under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. The expressway connects the Gwadar Port with the Makran Coastal Highway, thus improving connectivity and helping the transportation of goods towards Karachi. Other developments include 100MW Electricity import from Iran, multiple Housing Schemes, 5-star Hotels, Expo Centre, Desalination Plants on Arabian Sea, Pak-China Friendship Hospital, Aramco Oil Refinery and an ICC Standard Cricket Stadium.