Karachi (NEWS) Despite the announcement by Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar to make Gwadar port a major center of trade by sea in the near future and to establish industries in Gwadar port and improve communication links with industrial areas, Gwadar port has Efforts to bring cargo directly to the port could not be started to make it active and profitable. The efforts made in the Prime Ministership of Shahbaz Sharif to help the Gwadar port, which was built with the cooperation of China, could not be effective and Karachi was for no reason. And by diverting the cargo traffic of Qasim port to Gwadar port, the series of damage to the government treasury continues. The cargo transporters sector says that for the port to remain operational, it is necessary that the cargo should come, while on the other hand, the government said that the cargo that was transferred from Karachi port and Qasim port to Gwadar port is a loss instead of a benefit. I stayed because more than 3 billion rupees of extra diesel was burnt by shifting cargo from Karachi to Gwadar and the loss had to be borne by the government. According to the cargo transport sector, during the regime of Mian Shahbaz Sharif, urea fertilizer (fertilizer) and government wheat arriving at Karachi Port and Port Qasim were transferred to Gwadar Port so that

Gwadar Port could be operational to some extent, except for traffic from Karachi to Gwadar and from Gwadar to Karachi. In total, the government had to bear the additional cost of more than 3 billion rupees for 1500 km of diesel, despite the fact that the cargo could not be transported to

Gwadar port on a regular basis. According to sources, 3 Urea Fertilizer vessels were diverted to Gwadar in the previous government, MV Ultra Ester Hazy 32,394 MT berthed at Gwadar Port on 29 December 2022 while MV Nord Sunda 31,500 MT berthed at Gwadar on 1 January 2023. Berthed at port. Similarly, MV King One of 30,900 metric tons berthed at Gwadar port on January 9, 2023. These three ships had a total of 94,794 metric tons of cargo. According to sources, the cost of transportation from Gwadar to Karachi was between Rs.5500 to Rs.7000 per metric ton. Thus, 94,794 metric tonnes incurred an additional cost of Rs. 473 million to Rs. 315 million and this additional transportation cost was borne by the National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML). Apart from this, many ships of 4 lakh 50 thousand metric tons of wheat coming from Russia under Government to Government (G2G) were also diverted to Gwadar Port, but due to the increase in the price of diesel, the additional expenses were borne by the government. Gwadar Port from Karachi. It is about 750 km away. Most of the transport for cargo goes from Karachi to Gwadar, so the 2nd route is an additional 1,500 km. According to sources, the former government had to bear a total additional cost of about 5 billion rupees due to the transfer of other cargo, including wheat, from Karachi to Gwadar. On the other hand, the commercial circles say that the business circles also had to suffer due to the shifting of cargo from Karachi to Gwadar and bringing it back to Karachi. The additional spending billions of rupees could have been spent on providing proper hospitals and drinking water for the local people in Gwadar. Cargo transporters say that instead

of burning public funds in diesel, the government should spend a little longer on the poor people of Gwadar. It would be better to provide long- term benefits. It should be noted that Pakistan is currently struggling to get a loan from the IMF. This amount could have been useful to Pakistan because the additional cost of transportation from Gwadar would have been about 11.7 million US dollars, which is the loan from the IMF.