Beijing to Kashgar,
Gilgit to Gwadar…
By M Ismail Khan
The distance from Gilgit to Gwadar is fairly long -- but not enough when the Chinese are interested in building highways. Just as China is completing the construction of the Sust dry port in the Gilgit region, the Makran Coastal Highway and the Gwadar deep-sea port in Balochistan, it is now poised to expand and realign the Karakoram Highway which will enable it to access the port to facilitate exports from Chinese factories located in north-western China. Situated at the cusp of the Strait of Hormuz through which about 40% of the world's oil flows, the Gwadar port is being completed with financial assistance from China. In some ways, part of Gwadar's potential to become the future trade and energy hub for the growing economies of West, South and East Asia and the landlocked Central Asian Republics lies in the cutting down of transportation costs and time from Xinjiang province to the port.
Among the series of agreements signed by the two countries during President Musharraf's recent visit to China, a memorandum of understanding was inked for the realignment and expansion of the Karakoram Highway. This agreement could not have come at a better time for Pakistan. The country had to reconstruct a major part of the highway because of the Diamir (Basha) Dam project anyway. The proposed dam will submerge 110 kilometres of the highway from Sazine to Raikot Bridge near Nanga Parbat. The dam will also entail the expansion and upgrading of another 323km from Havelian to the dam site, in order to facilitate unhindered movement of heavy machinery, equipment and vehicles up to the dam site in the Northern Areas. The highway runs parallel to the Indus River up to Gilgit and then bends westward toward Khunjrab Pass through rugged terrain situated at between 4,000ft and 15,500ft above mean sea level into the Chinese Xinjiang province.
It took 12 years (1966-78), billions of yens, and around 1,100 lives of Chinese construction workers to carve out the Karakoram Highway over the Karakoram Mountains, the Frontier Works Organisation played an important role in the construction from the Pakistan side. But given the progress made during the last few decades in road-building material, techniques and technology, it would be possible to expand and realign the highway in a much shorter period of time.
The Karakoram Highway is perhaps the most important strategic link between Pakistan and China. It played an important part in cementing the bilateral relationship, be it transportation of heavy equipments to Chinese-assisted mega-projects in the country or spurring increased trade and commerce between the two countries. The growing US-India economic and nuclear cooperation is likely to give a new impetus to Pakistan-China relations. Although China and India have warmed up over the years and thorny border issues have been put on the backburner for the time being, the two still regard each other as natural competitors. The US-India long-term Strategic Partnership Agreement has made things more obvious. Pakistan, on the other hand, has served as a valuable geo-political connection for both the US and China. Pakistan facilitated Chinese links with the US during the cold war era. China also sees Pakistan as an important bridge to the Muslim world.
At the same time, improvement in Sino-Indian relations, changes in regional and global politics, and China's new and focused strategy of "peace and development" is shaping newer areas of collaboration between the two countries.
China has managed to sustain its extraordinary economic growth rate for decades now. It is bursting with products and services to reach out to new markets. The Karakoram Highway, built over the footmarks of the traders on the ancient Silk Route, offers a natural way for the manifestation of Chinese economic strength. But the true potential of the highway is yet to be fulfilled. Initially, except for inter-governmental exchanges, it was under-utilised, and, until the 1990s, small-time traders, mainly from the NWFP and Northern Areas, were its main beneficiaries. This is changing. Today there are around 250 Chinese-assisted small- and large-scale ongoing projects in Pakistan. About 60 Chinese companies have opened, or are in the process of opening, offices in different parts of the country.
The Chinese, however, remain wary of rising extremist elements in Pakistan. Until the '90s there were free exchanges between traders in China and Pakistan. Problems surfaced when Islamic preachers and jihadis started to frequent the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province, which sent alarm bells ringing in Beijing. Sensing the inevitable radicalisation China asked Pakistan to check the militant ideology knocking at its doors. A handful of Chinese students in Pakistani seminaries were repatriated and the Chinese reportedly weeded out a couple of hundred radical Muslims in Xinjiang province, who according to them were infected with Talibanisation. Thereafter, the visa regime for ordinary Pakistani border traders was reviewed and the number of Pakistani traders travelling to Xinjiang has gone down. Nonetheless, visa facilities for people of the Northern Areas remained positive, and traders belonging to the Northern Areas were granted special permits to enter and leave Xinjiang provinces under an agreement between the Northern Areas Administration and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
The Karakoram Highway has been the most influential catalyst for socio-economic transformation in the Northern Areas. Other key factors have been the strong NGO movement spearheaded by the Aga Khan Development Network and military-driven infrastructure development. In recent times the annual development budget has also seen an upsurge. Apart from the highway, the Northern Areas were backward and remote peripheries. The highway connected these isolated communities with the outside world. Increased tourism, trade and economic activities improved the socio-economic conditions of the people. On the other hand, centuries of harmonious social, cultural and natural environment was threatened by new challenges and the change in demography.
China is investing in a range of infrastructure projects in different parts of the Northern Areas. Besides the construction and maintenance of the Karakoram Highway, the Chinese have been working on a range of projects, including hydro-power generation, the dry port, water-diversion channels, bridges, telecommunication and trade. Water is another emerging area for Chinese collaboration. President Musharraf seems determined to build a number of dams in the Northern Areas, which contain Asia's largest naturally-formed glacier system. The site selected for the first such dam is situated in Diamir district. Given China's experience and expertise in building dams in mountain areas, it is likely that the Chinese will be investing more in water-sector projects in the area.
The official websites of Pakistan's embassies and high commissions have started to display new maps in which the whole of the Northern Areas are being shown as part of Pakistan. In the earlier maps the region was lumped together with Jammu and Kashmir as disputed territory. Many Pakistani maps used to show Gilgit as part of Pakistan and the Baltistan and Astore regions as part of the disputed area. It is not clear if India too has moved towards limiting the dispute to Azad Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir minus Ladakh and parts of Jammu, or if it is just a unilateral test on the part of Islamabad. Whatever the case, the status of the people of Gilgit and Baltistan remains undefined.
Moreover, Islamabad has already been exploring the possibility of a highway connection between Gilgit and Tajikistan over the Pamirs through the Ghizer district of the Northern Areas. On the other hand, people in the Northern Areas (particularly Baltistan) have been calling for the opening of three traditional road links between the Northern Areas and Indian-administered Kashmir. If opened, these could create new economic opportunities in South Asia. These mountain Highways can become new arteries for the transportation of people, oil, machines, silk and spices along the energy-starved hinterlands of South Asia and China.
In the Balochi language the word "Gwadar" means "door for air." Gwadar is indeed on the road to become a source of oxygen for one-third of humanity and many a marginalised peoples.