Balochistan wants full contorl over Gwadar Port

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: The government of Balochistan (GoB) is planning to buy all the share of Gwadar Port in order to secure full control of this strategic port.

It was disclosed by the Provincial Finance Minister Mir Asim Kurd during the post-budget briefing at the Civil Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon.

The Minister said that the government would buy the shares of the Singapore Port Authority and the National Logistics Cell (NLC) asking the federal government to help Balochistan in taking full control over Gwadar Deep Sea Port.

Mr. Kurd said that the government had allocated Rs 12 billion making investment in Saindak, Reko Dik and also buying significant number of share of OGDCL so that control these profitable commercial organizations.

He said government has established Balochistan Investment Board for attracting foreign investors in this backward province of Balochistan. He said the Chief Minister himself would be the chairman of the Board and highly professional people will be inducted in the BIB. “Rs one billion had been allocated for Metal Mining Industry for building a refinery for separating gold from Copper and other metals. He thought that the Provincial Government could earn as much as Rs 45 Billion annually in few years from this projects once they are fully functional. It may be pointed out that the Provincial Government has decided to take over both the Saindak project and Reko Dik and merged both the giant metal mining units changing the future of Balochistan.

At present, the Minister said that the blister copper is being taken to China where it is refined and the Government of Balochistan is unaware how much gold produced from Saindak. He was of the view that by establishing a refinery at the metal mining site—both Reko Dik and Saindak copper and gold project—the Government would provide jobs to a hundreds of more people.

The Minister said that it was the biggest achievement of the Government in getting the best NFC Award providing a huge sum of resources to this backward province. Earlier, Balochistan was denied its legitimate share from the divisible pool and also the right and correct price of its natural gas.

When a senior journalist pointed asked that the Budget had a block allocation of resources for unspcified purposes, the Minister drawn a blank advising the newsmen to put this question to the Minister for Planning and Development on Wednesday when he would hold his post budget briefing.

In regard to job opportunities, Mr. Asim Kurd said that all those 38,000 applicants would get jobs in due course of time. “It was a wrong impression that only 5000 applicants would be given jobs and others would be discarded or denied job. It is our responsible to provide jobs to all the educated youth,” The Minister told a questioner. He said the Provincial Government, with the cooperation of Federal Government, will make efforts to provide jobs to 20,000 people during next financial year.

On a question, he said Rs 30 million had been allocated for each MPA for their respective development programme, much higher than the other provinces. He said it was Rs 40 million during the current fiscal year and it was slashed by Rs 10 million for the next fiscal year.

Holding the previous federal government responsible for deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, the Minister said around Rs six billion were spent during the current fiscal year and Rs 12 billion had been allocated for the next financial year. He did not respond to a quip from a senior journalist that the Minister perceived a surge in violence during the next fiscal year.

In regard to rampant corruption, the Minister said that the Chief Minister had launched a war against corrupt practices and he is expected to win the war by substantially reducing corruption. He said that the Chief Minister is a very honest man and he hates corrupt and corrupt practices in his administration.

The Minister said that great emphasis was given to promotion of education and beefing health care facilities in all the districts of Balochistan making specific allocation for each and every district disallowing the more powerful to eat up the share of more backward districts within Balochistan.

He said that the Provincial Government had taken over all the educational institutions from the District and local Government and that is why the number of employees in the Education Department had jumped from 8176 to over 59,000. The allocation of funds also increased up to Rs 17 billion, the Finance Minister told the newsmen.

With the abolition of District Government system, the Balochistan Government had taken over all the schools, dispensaries and other departments and directly looking them after. For this specific reason, the Chief Minister once told newsmen the other day that “ It is my sweat will when to hold the Local Bodies elections in Balochistan.”