Voices from Pakistan at the Heart of China’s Belt and Road
This is a blog post I wrote at the conclusion of my American Pakistan Foundation fellowship where I was placed at the National Rural Support Programme of Pakistan in the summer of 2017. I not only recounted my experiences in the fellowship, but, having read about it as a student, I also wrote about the topic of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, now that I had seen it with my own eyes. I attempted to ascertain how regular Pakistanis felt about the project and whether it would really improve the lot of the general population of the country.
The inside of a Muslim Commercial Bank in Islamabad.
With just a few days left to go until I return to the States, I find myself already reflecting on the myriad of experiences I had here in Pakistan during my time in the American Pakistan Foundation Fellows Program. It has been a thoroughly educational and humbling experience that has helped me narrow down what I would like to pursue after I complete my Bachelor’s Degree this upcoming December. Perhaps the most amazing thing about my time here in Pakistan is that I feel that it has opened doors for me, not just physically, but mentally as well. Pakistan is no longer a distant country of apparent origin for my family, but rather a place I am well invested in seeing jump its various hurdles and become a more prosperous and peaceful nation for the sake of the people living within its borders. I am hopeful I can return again one day, as to say I even scratched even the surface of this beautiful nation would be almost too surreal of an understatement.
Having said all that, I would like to briefly discuss a subject that has been on mind since the very first day I arrived here in Pakistan. That day we decided to go out and get a feel for our surroundings and the area near the guest house we would be staying at. As we were getting lunch at a café, I overheard some businessmen discussing the topic of the increasing Chinese presence in Islamabad and Pakistan. One man in particular said something that has stuck with me and spurred my interest to learn more about the subject:
“Pakistan has become a colony of China.”
Prior to coming to Pakistan, I had been aware of and had read a good deal about the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (aka CPEC), and more broadly, the People’s Republic of China’s Belt and Road Initiative through Asia, Europe and parts of Africa. CPEC is basically a series of primarily infrastructure, but also agricultural, energy, financial and other projects that will be established in Pakistan. Established in 2013 with a current budget of $62 billion USD in loans from China, CPEC is expected to dramatically transform Pakistan, in terms of jobs, economic growth, transportation, and much more. There is more than a bit of understandable concern that Pakistan, in opening itself so much to Chinese investment, will become economically and politically subservient to China’s interests. This may cause a situation that some may be quick to compare, if not outright label as colonialism.
However, with what knowledge I did have, comparing it to colonialism seemed incredibly insulting to the actual memories of colonized nations like Pakistan (back then a part of the British Raj along with India, Bangladesh and Myanmar) which involved wanton acts of genocide on the part of imperialist powers like the British. Reading about a topic is different from actually seeing it with your own eyes however, so in light of the fact that the country’s seventieth anniversary was just upon us, I decided to find out as much as I could about how Pakistan has been changing as a result of CPEC with my own eyes, in addition to getting testimonies and thoughts from the people who have been living through this change.
A convenience store that only sells imported Chinese goods.
Walking around some of the more well off parts of Islamabad, it’s not too difficult to run into a few stores and restaurants exclusively dedicated to Chinese clientele a well as attempts by other establishments to draw them in, such as by including signs in Chinese. The Saudi Pak Tower, located on Jinnah Avenue, is apparently filled with Chinese businessmen and Zong, the second largest GSM mobile service provider in Pakistan, is a full subsidiary of China Mobile, a state run telecommunications company in China that is also now the largest mobile phone operator in the world.
It was hard to deny the seemingly obvious presence of Chinese influence in everyday life here, but then again, this was Islamabad, the capital, where it is probably most easy to find foreigners and foreign-oriented venues in general given that all the embassies and foreign missions are located here. With the orientations over, I figured going out into the field would be where I would really begin to see how far reaching the effects of CPEC had been on Pakistan.
Before we left for our first field visit, a program officer at the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) told the other fellows and I that while it’s true that the Chinese are mostly concerned with their own self-interest, CPEC in the long run will be a boon for Pakistan, and considering Pakistan is already at the whim of nations like Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, becoming entrenched in China’s sphere of influence hardly seemed to be any worse of a predicament for Pakistan’s sovereignty.
English-Chinese signs inside a popular bakery in Islamabad
In Bahawalpur, a city in the south of Punjab Province, I found that there were many Chinese workers in the city working at the nearby Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park, one of the infrastructure projects commissioned under CPEC that is supposed to boost energy output. It appeared that what I had heard was true, that CPEC is focused more on bringing in Chinese workers to complete projects rather than hiring and training domestic Pakistani workers. In the short term, perhaps it could be said that these projects will be completed faster and more efficiently due to the already skilled Chinese workers being put to task, but in the long run it does make one wonder how much of an economic benefit the local population will reap from these projects.
A road that is a part of CPEC under construction in Punjab’s southernmost district of Rahim Yar Khan.
However, perhaps focusing on the short term and using that to view the long term picture is also problematic. A senior at NRSP that directed a fellow and I in our interviews of some beneficiaries of the WISE program stated that he himself had previously worked at a Chinese operation in Gilgit-Baltistan, while we encountered a member of a Local Support Organization (LSO) in a village in the district of Rahim Yar Khan who apparently worked as a translator for the Chinese. On top of this, a government worker who accompanied us in the city of Rahim Yar Khan held a very optimistic outlook of CPEC, stating that this would no doubt bring great prosperity to the nation in the coming years.
It was hard not to want to think positively about the future of Pakistan in light of the recent political upheaval with the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister as well as the seventieth anniversary of the nation’s independence from the British Empire. Following our return to Islamabad after our respective field visits in Southern Punjab, the Fellows and I would go on to meet someone who would no doubt play a great role in the facilitation of CPEC in the coming years, an official from the State Bank of Pakistan, the equivalent to the Federal Reserve in the United States.
“This is going to be a game changer. ”
This State Bank official was straightforward in his thoughts that Pakistan had been presented with a great opportunity to reach greater heights than it can even imagine, and that the future need not be as negative, debt-ridden, or at the expense of the Pakistani people as many people and institutions (particularly Western ones) have covered the CPEC program as of late. They believed that in the long run, jobs are bound to be created alongside the various projects of CPEC, and it is these economic prospects that will calm instability and strife in the regions of Pakistan most affected by widespread poverty. They gave the example of Balochistan and the movements (such as that of separatism) within it that is hostile to the point of violence against projects such as CPEC. Were a new road to be constructed through it, towns, shops and other settlements and businesses would soon pop up vying to take advantage of the chance to improve their livelihoods, not entirely dissimilar to what the various railroads did for the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The State Bank official was surprisingly open to the possibility of failure, pointing to the Chinese invested Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, and how in its similarities to Gwadar in Pakistan, had ultimately been underused and unprofitable for that country. But again, they retained a sunny disposition about the case of Pakistan, saying that the viability and benefits of CPEC for Pakistan would all depend on the Pakistani people themselves. People can be given something, they asserted, but it’s up to the people themselves to do something with it. And they believe the people of Pakistan are more than capable of making the most of this opportunity.
Flags symbolizing the friendship between Pakistan and China.
Ultimately, much of the future of Pakistan and CPEC is not entirely clear, and for now most people will have to wait and see where this ambitious program on the part of the Chinese and Pakistani governments will go. Regardless, Pakistan will be going through some rapid changes in the next five, ten years.
One aspect I found consistent in all the interviews the other Fellows and I conducted, as well as my experience in general in Pakistan, whether it be in Southern Punjab or Azad Kashmir, was the deep seated apathy, mistrust, and outright frustration with the government at every level. Basic needs like education and safe drinking water were being met through coordination with NRSP, an NGO, when they should be chiefly the government’s responsibility. But the government had ultimately failed to do its job and very much appears to have no interest in engaging rural, financially weak communities until election time rolls around, and indeed, the 2018 elections are just around the corner. In fact, the poor in Pakistan, like in the rest of the world, appear to be getting poorer, while the rich are getting ever richer and essentially walling themselves off in upper class areas such as Bahria Towns and Cantonments. Corruption, lack of accountability, and general incompetence among other issues are holding back a country that otherwise has plenty of resources and a growing workforce. The disqualification of Nawaz Sharif may have been seen by some as a victory, but the battle, as they often say, has just begun. With the advent of CPEC, I firmly believe it’s time the government of Pakistan, which as an ostensible democracy should represent the interests of its people, step up to the plate and make life better for everyone in Pakistan, not just the top one percent.
Altogether, it’s been an exciting time to be in Pakistan and I would like to take the time to thank APF and NRSP for giving me the opportunity to see all of this with my own eyes. I also have much gratitude to all the other people I met along the way, such as the members of the various local, community, and village organizations. I have gained and learned more from you all than I can even begin to express, and I hope to meet you all again someday. I am sure that the next time I come to Pakistan, a lot will have changed, but hopefully, much of it will be for the better.
Until then, I’ll be looking forward.