Pakistan vote elevates Belt and Road critic in key port of Gwadar

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's elections have cemented the rise of a local rights activist in the southwestern port of Gwadar, potentially affecting China's Belt and Road Initiative projects in the area.

In the Gwadar constituency of the Balochistan provincial assembly, voters elected Maulana Hidayat ur Rehman, leader of the Gwadar Rights Movement. The organization contends that the needs and grievances of the local population have been ignored by Islamabad, and that the benefits of the Belt and Road have not trickled down.