ISLAMABAD, 23 December 2006 — Pakistan has decided to give the management control of its upcoming deep-seaport in southwestern Balochistan province to Port of Singapore from next year, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.
China, a close strategic and economic ally of Pakistan which has already co-built several projects including two nuclear power stations, has financed around 75 percent of the $250 million it has taken to build the port.
“Today Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved a summary to hand over the management of Gwadar port to Port of Singapore,” Federal Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Ghauri told AFP.
“We have formed a committee which will negotiate with Port of Singapore and within 15 days the port would be handed over to them,” Ghauri said, adding that Arabian Sea port was expected to be in operation in March.
Ghauri declined to give further details about the financial aspects of the deal.
Asked why close ally China was not given the management of the port, Ghauri said “China did not apply” for it when international tenders were called.
German Explosives Threaten Town
A huge underground store of German-made explosives dating back some 75 years has become so unstable that it threatens to devastate a town in northern Pakistan, the English-language Daily Times newspaper reported yesterday.
Despite requests, provincial and state authorities failed to remove the stockpiles from beneath the palace in Dir, the capital of a small former state located in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Bought by Dir’s last Nawab, or prince, for local defense, the explosives were in 1931 housed in a magazine under the residence.
After detonating samples in the open, Pakistani munitions experts last year said they were “very dangerous and powerful” and capable of wiping out the palace and surrounding four kilometers, which is Dir town, home to more than 15,000 people.
The explosives were liable to accidentally detonate at any time and only the low temperature in the vaults had likely prevented them from going off so far, according to the head of the military team.
