Gwadar

Gwadar's position on the Makran coast put it on an ancient sea route between Mesopotamia, Persia and the Indus. Alexander the Great's admiral Nearchus sailed this shore in the 4th century BC while the army marched back through the Gedrosian desert, and Arab fleets passed along it on the way to Sindh. For most of its recorded history it was a small fishing settlement living off the sea and the date palms behind the coast, changing hands between Persian, Portuguese and local powers.

In the late 18th century the ruler of Kalat granted Gwadar to a prince of Muscat, and the town remained an Omani possession, administered from across the Gulf of Oman, for close to two centuries. Oman built a fort and collected customs, and dhows carried dates, dried fish and passengers between the Makran and the Arabian peninsula — a link still visible in family ties between Gwadar and Muscat. Oman handed the enclave over to Pakistan on 8 September 1958, after a contribution of about three million US dollars from Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, and it was merged into Balochistan.

Plans to turn the natural harbour into a major port were discussed for decades before construction of a deep-water port began in 2002 with Chinese assistance. The first phase was inaugurated in 2007, the port became formally operational in 2016, and it is run by a Chinese state company as the maritime terminal of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. The scheme brought a free zone, a new airport, roads and a great deal of land speculation, but much less local employment than promised, and Gwadar has since seen large protests over water, electricity and the rights of its fishermen.

Gwadar is a Baloch town whose culture faces the sea and the Gulf as much as it does the interior of Pakistan. Balochi is the language of the streets; many families have relatives in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and returning migrants have shaped the town's houses, tastes and money for generations. The Omani centuries left mosques, wind-catching house design and a shared repertoire of music along both sides of the water.

Baloch custom stresses hospitality, the protection of guests and loyalty to family and tribe, and disputes are often settled by elders. Dress is distinctive: men in very loose shalwar and long shirts, often with a turban, and women in long dresses with dense mirrored embroidery across the front pocket and cuffs, a craft that is also made for sale. Music is carried by the suroz, a bowed string instrument, and by the benju, a keyed zither that is one of the characteristic sounds of Balochi music; sung epics of tribal heroes and Sufi poetry are the traditional repertoire.

Religious life is Muslim and largely Sunni, with Sufi shrines respected along the coast, and Zikri communities present in the Makran. Fishing gives the town its calendar and much of its vocabulary, and boatbuilding by hand continues in nearby villages. Political feeling runs strong: the town's public life is dominated by argument over who benefits from the port, and local movements over fishing rights and water have drawn very large crowds.

The 2023 census counted about 71,000 people in Gwadar, fewer than the 90,000 recorded in 2017 and far short of the projections that accompanied the port. Fishing remains the base of daily life: boats work the Arabian Sea for kingfish, mackerel, tuna, prawns, crab and lobster, and the catch is sold at the harbour, dried on racks or trucked inland. Dates from the palm groves of the Makran, small trade with Iran across the border, government employment and remittances from the Gulf make up most of the rest.

Water is the constant preoccupation. The district depends on small dams that fail in drought years and on tankered supply, and shortages are routine. Electricity has historically come across the border from Iran and is interrupted often. Schools and hospitals are stretched, and serious medical cases go to Karachi.

Two towns exist side by side: the crowded old settlement on the isthmus, where life runs between the mosque, the bazaar and the boats, and the wide, half-built new districts laid out for a future population that has not yet arrived. Land prices rose sharply with each announcement about the port and fell back again. Security dominates movement, with checkpoints on the approach roads and fenced zones around the port, and protests and shutdowns interrupt ordinary business several times a year.

Gwadar eats fish. The day's catch — kingfish, mackerel, pomfret, tuna, prawns, crab and lobster — is grilled whole over coals, fried in a light batter or cooked in a thin tomato and chilli curry, and eaten with flatbread or rice. Dried and salted fish, hung on racks along the shore, has been a trade good on this coast for centuries and still flavours cooking inland. Fish biryani and rice cooked with prawns appear at family meals and celebrations.

The Balochi meat tradition is here too. Sajji, a whole lamb or chicken lightly salted, skewered and roasted slowly beside an open fire, is the dish of hospitality across the province, served with kaak, a thick bread baked around a hot stone. Meat and rice cooked together in a covered pit, a method known along the Makran, appears at weddings and large gatherings.

Dates are the other local product: the palm groves behind the coast supply fresh dates in summer and dried dates all year, eaten with tea and pressed into sweets. Gulf and Omani influence shows in the town's sweet, cardamom-scented tea, in halwa, and in the use of dried limes and strong spice mixtures in some fish dishes. Bread comes from tandoor ovens in the bazaar, and green tea is offered to every visitor and every customer.