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First bulk cargo ship docks at Pakistan’s Gwadar under Afghan Transit Trade

A Pakistani army soldier stands guard at Gwadar port on on Oct. 4, 2017. (AFP/File)
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Updated 30 May 2020
Khurshid Ahmed
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First bulk cargo ship docks at Pakistan’s Gwadar under Afghan Transit Trade

  • MV Manet brought a huge consignment for Afghanistan and docked at the deep-sea port on May 28
  • Local business community says the development has turned their decades-old dream into reality
Updated 30 May 2020
Khurshid Ahmed

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Gwadar deep-sea port witnessed the beginning of a new era of transit trade as the first bulk cargo ship for landlocked Afghanistan docked at the facility on Thursday, said officials while talking to Arab News on Saturday.
“MV Manet is the first bulk cargo vessel that arrived at the deep-sea port on May 28, 2020, carrying a big consignment of wheat and urea fertilizer for Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade [ATT],” Naseer Khan Kashani, Chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA), confirmed.
The Gwadar deep-sea port lies at the heart of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a major component of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that envisions infrastructure development and investments in nearly 70 countries around the world.
The port is situated near the international oil trading hub and shipping routes at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Islamabad decided to allow bulk cargo import of wheat, sugar and fertilizers under the ATT at the Gwadar port in April 2020. The shipments would then be carried forward to Kabul in sealable trucks.
Packaging of the 16,000 megaton urea is also supposed to be done at the deep-sea port.
“For the first time, bagging will be done locally and not on any foreign port. Urea will be bagged in Gwadar and shipped on trucks to Afghanistan, generating some good employment opportunities for locals. Instructions have already been given to allocate all labor jobs to the local population,” Abdul Razak Dawood, adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, said in a Twitter post on Friday.

The Gwadar port has been operational since March 2018, and it was opened for the ATT in October 2019. The first ship carrying containers for Afghan transit trade docked at the port on January 14 this year.
“This is the third ATT consignment as the first two were containerized cargoes and this one is bulk cargo shipment,” said the GPA chief.
“Authorities have taken necessary preventive measures against COVID-19 beforehand to ensure smooth business activities at the port,” he added.
Local businessmen also hailed the development, saying their decades-old dream had turned into reality.
“Our elders waited for this moment since the 1970s. They dreamt of the day Gwadar port would be connected with the Central Asian states. Now their vision has come true,” Mir Naveed Baloch, group leader at the Gwadar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Arab News.
Excited about the development, Baloch hoped it would create more employment opportunities for locals. “A ship can employee at least 500 people directly or indirectly,” he continued.
“This is a welcome step,” Zubair Motiwala, chairman of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said. “Owing to the 100 percent inspection of the cargo, however, it is delaying the delivery to the neighboring country which should not happen.”
As the expansion of Gwadar port takes place through Chinese investment, the authorities are gearing up for transshipment that is expected to spur with the start of industrial activities in free zones.
“The port is being developed at the cost of about $600 million, and a chunk of that investment is also going into the pipeline. Additional three berths will be constructed here in the coming two years,” the GPA chief, Kashani, told Arab News.
“The rules have been notified for transshipment that is likely to commence in about six months,” he said, adding: “The transshipment activity will pick up as other businesses gain pace in the free zones. Nine industries are already being set up in the Gwadar free zone.”
The Gwadar deep-sea port is CPEC’s starting point. It is also considered to be the cheapest route for imports and exports to and from China and the Central Asian countries.
The port provides a much shorter and inexpensive route to ship oil and gas from the Middle East and minerals from Africa to these destinations.

Topics: Pakistan CPEC China Pakistan Economic Corridor CORONAVIRUS PAKISTAN Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Return of millions of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran pushes Afghanistan to the brink, UN warns

Updated 5 sec ago
AP
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Return of millions of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran pushes Afghanistan to the brink, UN warns

  • Afghan authorities provide care packages for those returning that include food aid, cash, a telephone SIM card and transportation
  • But the returns have strained resources in a country struggling with a weak economy, severe drought and two devastating earthquakes
Updated 5 sec ago
AP

GENEVA: The return of millions of Afghans from neighboring Pakistan and Iran is pushing Afghanistan to the brink, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, describing an unprecedented scale of returns.

A total of 5.4 million people have returned to Afghanistan since October 2023, mostly from the two neighboring countries, UNHCR’s Afghanistan representative Arafat Jamal said, speaking to a U.N. briefing in Geneva via video link from Kabul, the Afghan capital.

“This is massive, and the speed and scale of these returns has pushed Afghanistan nearly to the brink,” Jamal said.

Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in Oct. 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcible deportation and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time.

Since then, millions have streamed across the border into Afghanistan, including people who were born in Pakistan decades ago and had built lives and created businesses there.

Last year alone, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, Jamal said, noting it was “the largest number of returns that we have witnessed to any single country.”

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have criticized the mass expulsions.

Afghanistan was already struggling with a dire humanitarian situation and a poor human rights record, particularly relating to women and girls, and the massive influx of people amounting to 12% of the population has put the country under severe strain, Jamal said.

Already in just the month and a half since the start of this year, about 150,000 people had returned to Afghanistan, he added.

Afghan authorities provide care packages for those returning that include some food aid, cash, a telephone SIM card and transportation to parts of the country where they might have family. But the returns have strained resources in a country that was already struggling to cope with a weak economy and the effects of a severe drought and two devastating earthquakes.

In November, the U.N. development program said nine out of 10 families in areas of Afghanistan with high rates of return were resorting to what are known as negative coping mechanisms — either skipping meals, falling into debt or selling their belongings to survive.

“We are deeply concerned about the sustainability of these returns,” Jamal said, noting that while 5% of those who return say they will leave Afghanistan again, more than 10% say they know of someone who has already left.

“These decisions, I would underscore, to undertake dangerous journeys, are not driven by a lack of a desire to remain in the country, on the contrary, but the reality that many are unable to rebuild their viable and dignified lives,” he said.

Topics: Afghan Refugees in pakistan Afghan refugees in Iran expulsion of Afghan refugees

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