High-profile events in places like Gwadar project ambition and showcase the region's significant strategic geography. A similar event titled 'Pathways to a Modern Coastal City', organised last month by the Government of Balochistan and some federal institutions, resonated with the usual repetitive shallow rhetoric on the "strategic potential" of Gwadar. The apparent objective was to woo investors and tourists into the region, where economic infrastructure continues to reel from shortages of electricity and water; education and governance remains in a shambles; and the general environment is held hostage to a state of insecurity.

Two issues stand out when you read about such "feel-good" undertakings. First, what tangible outcomes have these high-visibility gatherings generated for local stakeholders? Second, to what extent do conference discussions reflect Gwadar's on-ground socioeconomic realities?

Without sounding despondent or offensive to any one, I am penning down some thoughts here after a sound stock-taking of the ground realities of the 'Jewel in the CPEC Crown', based on conversations with private individuals and government officials.

Gwadar — where presently no in and out traffic flows after the sunset until the sunrise — has been witness to dozens of such gatherings since the launch of CPEC over a decade ago, but its story hasn't changed. Most residents think their lives were far better before the expansion of the Port and the creation of the Free Industrial Zone. Ironically, the very mega projects that were promised as........

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