Role of local community in mega development initiative as economic corridor: the case of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Balochistan, Pakistan

The traditional relationship of a society and economic prosperity is complex and often goes hand-in-hand with conflict and dissent. Development initiatives are considered imperative, and it is a common practice that governments spend huge sums of public money on mega construction, infrastructure, and development projects for political, social, and economic gains. Often in the case of a developing country, such huge development initiatives are undertaken with the collaboration of another country through the platform of foreign direct investment and claimed as a mutually beneficial venture for all stakeholders.       It is time and again observed that these development undertakings end up creating issues in developing countries due to controversial policies, practices, failures and even by creating poles of winners and losers. Additionally, such partnerships are bound by complex agreements, that if remained undisclosed may result in further complications, especially among the complicated matrix of associated stakeholders that is further burdened by a long list of governance and non-governance concerns. Local communities (LCs) are often given low importance as non-elite members of society due to the little power they hold in the management, planning and implementation of such development proposals. Interestingly there is literature that argues that local community (LC) can exercise significant influence on the output of such development schemes, which needs further exploration. Local communities are vital because they are directly impacted by development works, while the very development is done by the people's money with the agenda of benefitting these people, who are members of the non-elite in their society. In the case of developing countries, the lack of a proper governance structure yields issues, such as centralised policy making and weak provincial and local government structures that often lead the powerful elites to manipulate such development works for their own benefit, which will eventually trigger conflict, uncertainty, and opposition in local communities of non-elites. The case of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) provides an ideal basis for investigating the issue of engaging the local community in development initiatives. CPEC is mutually beneficial for both involved partners. From Pakistan's perspective it is a game changer that will bring munch needed FDI and long-awaited economic development, while it provides an ideal route for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and access for China to the Arabian Sea. With promises of prosperity, the project nevertheless faces issues like a lack of transparency, untrustworthiness, high costs, interest payments to China and many others which create uncertainty in the local communities of Pakistan, especially within Balochistan. This case study of CEPC is primarily focused on the province of Balochistan due to its geopolitical importance, as the investment of CPEC is centered around the development of a deep seaport at Gwadar in Balochistan. This will connect the western region of China with the Arabian Sea through a land-based corridor of around 3000 km. The research investigated the issues from the perspective of the local communities of Balochistan and tried to analyse why the local communities support or oppose this mega venture and how to integrate their role in its development. The study has used an explanatory research design that emphasised exploring the in-depth information related to an issue in a real-life context, as in the case of CPEC in Balochistan. The study further used the constructionism paradigm based on the principle that truth and knowledge are constructed through social interaction, as in the case of elites (policy makers) and non-elites (receivers of policy outcomes). Individual and group interviews were used to address the research agenda which was divided into four objectives. The research is bounded within the framework of the main question and research objectives which are discussed in four chapters, with each chapter critically reviewing the primary and secondary sources of data. The output of the research explains the importance of local people in mega development initiatives from the perspective of public policies through the case prism of CPEC in Balochistan. The research provides primary empirical evidence on factors influencing the role of local communities in a developing country, such as Pakistan, from the position of the local communities. The study used elite theory as a theory of investigation to explore the research gap of the influence of elites in an Islamic developing country such as Pakistan and how the division of society into social elites and non-elites affects local communities and project outcomes.