Significance of Maritime Domain Awareness and Economic Challenges in the Case of Pakistan

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) refers to the ability of effectively understanding events and activities in the marine domain that may impact the environment, economy, safety, or security. This involves gathering, combining, evaluating, and sharing data about maritime operations that could affect a nation’s vital interests. It is crucial to monitor, identify, track, and analyze maritime activities and threats within a nation’s territorial seas, exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and other areas of interest. MDA plays a crucial role in maintaining national security, protecting marine interests, preventing illicit activities such as terrorism, smuggling, and piracy, and promoting economic growth through maritime trade. This article explores Pakistan’s maritime domain challenges and how to leverage its potential to address economic issues.

Over the past 300 years, nations like the USA, Great Britain, and France have emphasized the importance of maritime infrastructure for economic growth and global influence. Pakistan, with its vast coastline and strategic maritime location, needs an effective maritime strategy to tap its resources. For example, fisheries can be an important aspect of maritime domain development. Pakistan can extract and export 2 to 3 billion dollars of fish per year. However it lacks a modern infrastructure to export processed fish.

Maritime Infrastructure and Potential of Pakistan

Pakistan has a vital strategic maritime location in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and has a 1,046 km long coastline along the Arabian Sea in its south. It offers Pakistan opportunities in the maritime domain and global trade network. The maritime infrastructure of Pakistan comprises of various ports i.e. the Port of Karachi, the Gwadar Port, Port Qasim, and smaller ports of Pasni, Ormara and Keti Bandar.These ports provide effective gateways for global trade, transportation and economy.

The Port of Karachi is the largest in Pakistan, located in Karachi. While Port Qasim is the second largest port, located near Karachi. Both of these ports handle bulk cargo, oil shipments, containers, etc. Port Qasim facilitates LNG, iron ore, and coal. Gwadar Port is a deep-sea port in Balochistan. It is strategically important with the potential of becoming a significant transshipment hub under the CPEC as it connects the Arabian Sea with the Middle East, which can prove to be a conduit for the countries in the Arabian Sea.

However, Pakistan’s maritime potential is not just limited to its ports but also extends to its EEZ. It covers 290,000 square kilometers in the Arabian Sea. EEZ occupies the majority of maritime resources with the potential to contribute to the blue economy and opportunities for various sectors such as fisheries, maritime tourism, offshore oil and gas exploration, shipbuilding and repair, and maritime education.

Maritime Domain Challenges for Pakistan

Pakistan is facing multiple challenges in its maritime domain that are impacting its economy. Non-state actors are engaging in illicit activities like piracy, drug trafficking, human smuggling, armaments smuggling, and terrorism, which pose a significant security threat to the maritime domain. Additionally, Pakistan is facing a maritime border dispute with India in the Sir Creek region.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is depleting marine resources, causing economic loss to the nation, and posing a risk to climate change due to industrial waste, oil spills, and garbage dumping.

Pakistan is also facing challenges in effectively utilizing its maritime resources due to inadequate infrastructure, limited coastal management, and insufficient logistics and navigation systems.

Opportunities for Pakistan’s economy:

Pakistan needs to enhance its maritime potential and address the challenges mentioned above, so that Pakistan can cash numerous opportunities for its economic success. Some of them are:

1. Pakistan urgently needs to focus its attention on developing maritime infrastructure to promote regional and global trade by developing ports and shipping infrastructure. It also includes technological innovation and development. This can enhance MDA by incorporating advanced surveillance and intelligence-gathering systems and satellite imagery boosting Pakistan’s maritime economy.
2. Pakistan must focus on strengthening its naval capabilities by enhancing its maritime security by modernizing its naval fleet, developing and advancing its aircraft, ships, and submarines, and improving surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence within its maritime borders. It should deploy advanced coastal defense systems, special naval forces, and modern intelligence networks so that maritime activities can be monitored and non-state actors like smugglers or terrorists could be prohibited from breaching security of coastlines.
3. Pakistan must build partnerships with other states to ensure the safety and security of the maritime domain. Such collaboration could foster maritime security through information sharing, maritime domain awareness, and joint naval exercises.
4. China can help Pakistan to create and put into action policies that support projects related to the blue economy, such as sustainable tourism in coastal areas, offshore wind and tidal energy projects, and marine aquaculture.
5. Pakistan needs to take the necessary steps to mitigate the challenges and risks posed by climate change to protect its maritime resources and infrastructure. It is also necessary to regulate and manage the fishery for its effective resource conservation. Regulatory compliance must also be ensured for sustainable maritime activities.
6. To guarantee efficient governance and enforcement of maritime laws, Pakistan must make investments in the capacity building of maritime institutions, regulatory organizations, and enforcement agencies. To foster adaptability, innovation, and development in the maritime domain, it should invest in maritime education, training, and research.
7. Pakistan must also undertake public-private partnerships to attract investment for building maritime infrastructure and enhancing MDA Local coastal communities must also be included in maritime decision-making as important stakeholders that will help enforce maritime policies and foster effective maritime governance.

The considerate role of naval forces can not be neglected in protecting the maritime domain and safeguarding maritime infrastructure and maritime interests. The Belt and Road Initiative of China has benefited Pakistan in the form of CPEC. It is a noteworthy extension of the Karakoram Highway in the maritime domain bringing up new opportunities and opening doors of economic prosperity to Pakistan. The development of Gwadar port will not just improve connectivity in the region, but will also address internal security issues in Pakistan, such as the insurgency in Balochistan, by addressing the social, political, and economic grievances of the local population. Additionally, China will assist in fostering Pakistan’s shipbuilding industry and blue economy for a better future.

Urooj Muqadas

+ posts

Ms Urooj Muqadas is a defence analyst and a columnist based in Islamabad.

This author does not have any more posts.