Pakistan has roughly 1,000 kilometres of coastline, and over 90 per cent of its trade moves by sea. Even so, its strategy has always faced inland, toward India and the Afghan border. My research asks a simple question: did the maritime moves of 2019 to 2026 change that habit? Attention has changed a lot. Ships, ports and institutions have changed only a little.

A Coastline the State Overlooked

The numbers show how wide the gap is. Pakistan’s national carrier, PNSC, lifted only 9.33 per cent of seaborne trade in 2020, down from 16 per cent in 2016, according to a PIDE policy paper. The government now admits that foreign companies carry about 90 per cent of imports and exports, as Minute Mirror reported. The same paper counted just 57 Pakistan-flagged vessels in 2021, and none was a container ship. India had 1,801. The ministry puts the blue economy at around 0.4 per cent of GDP, close to one billion dollars, as Zameen.com noted.

History explains the habit. Pakistan was born in conflict with a larger neighbour, and the army shaped national priorities from the start. The navy stayed small, and its main job was to guard Karachi and the sea lanes leading to it.

The Paper Turn of 2025

Policy moved fast in 2025. A prime ministerial task force proposed a single maritime authority, common port tariffs and a new model for PNSC, as Nukta reported in January. A National Maritime Policy followed in February, announced through the........

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