FOR fifteen years, Pakistan’s motorway network has carried a glaring gap through its centre.
The M-6 Sukkur-to-Hyderabad Motorway remains the missing 306-kilometre link between Karachi Port and the country’s northern corridor. Until it is completed, trucks carrying export goods, buses transporting families and ambulances travelling north from Karachi are forced onto the ageing N-5 highway. The consequences are visible every day in deadly accidents, wasted fuel, delayed cargo, damaged produce and rising transport costs.
That can now change. Financing has largely been secured, federal approvals are complete and the National Highway Authority is preparing to move ahead. What remains is decisive action from Sindh, particularly on land acquisition. This is the moment for President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to turn M-6 into the defining infrastructure project of the next two years.
Once completed, M-6 will finally connect Pakistan’s motorway chain from Karachi to Peshawar through a continuous six-lane corridor designed for modern traffic speeds. At present, more than 50,000 vehicles daily are pushed onto the overburdened N-5 and N-55 routes. Those highways were never built for such pressure. M-6 would reduce travel time, lower freight costs, improve road safety and strengthen the movement of Sindh’s agricultural and industrial output, including cotton, wheat, mangoes and Thar coal. The motorway alignment passes through major population and trade centres of interior Sindh, including Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shahdadpur, Tando Adam and Matiari. Fifteen interchanges are planned along the route, creating direct commercial access for farmers, traders and industries to Karachi Port within hours instead of days. The project is also an essential component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Without M-6, the north-south trade route remains incomplete.
Most procedural barriers have already been cleared. ECNEC approved the project at a cost of Rs 363 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme. The Islamic Development Bank approved 475 million dollars in financing in October 2025, while parliamentary committees expect construction to begin in 2026. A Chinese construction company has also expressed interest in executing the project. In practical terms, land acquisition is now the single largest hurdle.
The Sindh government should therefore act on an emergency footing. Deputy Commissioners in all affected districts must be given administrative authority, compensation resources and single-window powers to accelerate acquisition. A high-level monitoring mechanism involving the Presidency, Sindh government, National Highway Authority and lenders should also be established to prevent bureaucratic delays. The political and economic stakes are significant. The Pakistan People’s Party has governed Sindh since 2008 and the motorway passes directly through many of its strongest constituencies. Every interchange represents future employment, trade activity and visible state investment. Rapid implementation would also improve investor confidence and strengthen Sindh’s case for future infrastructure financing.
Delay, meanwhile, carries a heavy price. Freight inefficiencies and fuel wastage on the Hyderabad-to-Sukkur corridor are estimated to cost tens of billions of rupees annually, while hundreds of lives continue to be lost on dangerous sections of the N-5.
Pakistan completed M-1 to M-5 over two decades. M-6 alone has spent nearly fifteen years trapped in announcements and paperwork. The financing exists, the planning exists and the need has existed for a generation. Sindh now has an opportunity to ensure it no longer remains the missing link in Pakistan’s economic geography. History remembers the builders. M-6 must finally move from promise to completion.
—The writer is former Regional Executive Inclusive Development at NBP, Mirpur AK.
