The Pasni Surprise

Pasni is a small fishing town located along Makran Coastal Highway some 500 kilometers from Karachi, or around 120 kilometers short of Gwadar, and is considered as one of the main shipping hubs of Makran coastal range.

Seafood and Sunrise

Two reasons the town can easily be fit into an explorer’s itinerary are the inexpensive seafood and the amazing sunrise along its eastern coastline, the latter is otherwise an exception in Pakistan as country’s coastal line is largely South/West facing.

My Peeks

My first visit of the town was in fact a sojourn during the Road Trip to Gwadar in September 2010. Actually, I aimed to collect some firsthand information especially about accommodation options in the town and about logistics to Astola Island. My travel buddy, Haris, and I wanted to visit the island but the paucity of time, the low tide, and the absence of economy forced us from making the voyage.

A month later, a group of colleagues made a plan to explore the Coastal Highway till Ormara and gave me no choice but to join them. Pasni was actually the Plan B of our trip, in case we would not find a place to spend the night in Ormara. And we did not! The town surprised us with its inexpensive seafood and the magnificent sunrise. However, I could not do the island again, alas, because of time constraint.

Pasni Differentiation

One of the distinguishing features of this town is the presence of a deep sea island, referred to as Astola in the Atlas, under its administrative jurisdiction. This 200 feet high platform, locally known as Haft Lar, mainly attracts scuba divers due to the steep fall on its Northern face and also used as a base by the local fishermen in the netting season. Ruins of an antique Hindu temple and a mosque attributed to Hazrat Khizr increase the mysteriousness associated with the isle.

Although Pasni is a small settlement, which had been further overshadowed by the emergence of Gwadar and hence ignored by travelers, however, history of this town dates back to Alexander’s Indian Campaign and further back to Harappan era.