ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday ordered that 50 percent of all public sector cargo be brought to Pakistan through the deep sea port of Gwadar, the premier’s office said in a statement.
Gwadar port is on the Arabian Sea in the southwestern province of Balochistan. China has invested heavily in the mineral-rich province, including developing Gwadar, despite a decades-long separatist insurgency. The deep-water port is key to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that also encompasses roads and energy projects and is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The China Overseas Port Holding Company (COPHC), which operationally handles Gwadar, plans to eventually expand the port’s capacity to up to 400 million tons of cargo per year. Long term plans for the port require a total of 100 berths to be developed by 2045. For now, Gwadar is underutilized for commercial import and export due to reasons such as distance from the marketplaces of the country, security and services availability.
“Prime minister’s clear instructions that 50 percent of all public sector cargo for the country by sea should be brought from Gwadar port,” Sharif’s office said in a statement after a review meeting on Chinese investments and a visit by a delegation of Chinese experts from July 30 to August 6.
Pakistan is engaging the experts to increase domestic exports and remove non-trade barriers, the PM’s office said:
“The Chinese delegation met the representatives of various ministries in which the ministries gave suggestions regarding increasing cooperation in related fields. During the delegation’s visit, significant progress was made in terms of cooperation and investment in trade and investment, energy, agriculture, information technology, communication and infrastructure sectors between China and Pakistan.”
The PM’s office said sectoral road shows would be organized in different cities of China to increase exports of Pakistani products, while Islamabad would seek technology transfer and upgradation services from China in electric vehicles, electro-medical devices and other sectors.
Security of Chinese workers has become a major security concern for Beijing since March this year when a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers in the north of the country. Militants have also previously attacked Chinese nations and targeted projects.
Pakistan PM orders routing 50 percent public cargo through Gwadar port
https://arab.news/2xpjf
Pakistan PM orders routing 50 percent public cargo through Gwadar port
- China Overseas Port Holding Company plans to eventually expand port’s capacity to up to 400 million tons of cargo per year
- Gwadar underutilized for import and export due to distance from marketplaces of the country, security and services availability
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
