The track can receive a Boeing 777. The terminal boasts capacity for 400,000 passengers a year. But Gwadar’s International Airport, the largest and most expensive of Pakistan, has no flights, or airlines interested in carrying their planes, nor contracted personnel. In fact, it did not even physically open its doors to the public: its inauguration, held in October 2024, was limited to a video call connection between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang.
Located in the coastal city of Gwadar, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, the complex has cost 240 million dollars, entirely suffered by Beijing. It is part of the Chinese-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), an ambitious infrastructure plan that aims to connect the western region of Xinjiang with the Arabic sea. Despite the billions invested by China in the area during the last decade, the transformation promised by the authorities has not materialized. “This airport is not for Pakistan or Gwadar. It is for China, so that its citizens have safe access to Gwadar and Baluchistan,” explains Azeem Khalid, an expert in international relations, quoted by .
The contrast between the empty airport and the city is brutal. Gwadar is not connected to the National Electricity; It depends on solar panels and the supply from Iran. Most of its 90,000 inhabitants do not have stable access to drinking water. Only one airline flies three times a week to Karachi. There are no direct routes or Quetta, the regional capital, or Islamabad. For neighbors, the new infrastructure does not respond to a necessity: “such an airport is not a priority in a city where the most basic is missing,” denounces local leaders.
China’s presence in Baluchistan has fueled the armed conflict that has been dragged for decades. Separatist groups, such as the Baluchistan Liberation Army, consider that the State exploits its resources without offering anything in return. They attack both Pakistani military and Chinese workers, which has caused extreme militarization of Gwadar: control stalls, thorn wire, streets cut to the passage of convoys, surveillance to journalists. “No one used to ask who we are or where we are going. Now we must show our identity in every corner. We live here. Those who ask, who are they?” Khuda Bakhsh hashim complains, a 76 -year -old neighbor.
The Government ensures that CPEC has created some 2,000 local jobs, but Baluches leaders denied it. “They have not hired a single Gwadar inhabitant, not even as a vigilant,” says Abdul Ghafoor Hoth, leader of the Awami party of Baluchistan. In December, he organized daily protests that forced the authorities to promise basic improvements, such as water and electricity. None have been fulfilled.
The airport itself, planned as a symbol of progress, has been marked by distrust. The chosen location – rod of mountains – has aroused the fear of possible armed attacks. According to Khalid, “there will be no real benefits as long as people are not hired from here or local services are used.” The arrival of money, he argues, brought with him a security device that has only deepened the resentment: “The Pakistani government is not willing to give anything to the Baluche people, and the Baluche people are not willing to accept anything from the government.”
