Balochistan On the Verge Of A “Civil War”: Telecommunication Minister

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: Dr Ayatullah Durrani, Minister of State for Industries and Production, had claimed that Balochistan is heading towards a ‘civil war’ blaming the Baloch resistance fighters of taking a harder approach and ignoring the offers from the Federal Government to restore peace.

He warned that if the attitude of ‘hot heads’ did not change, the situation could take an ugly turn pushing the province close to a ‘civil war’.

Addressing a Forum here on Monday, organized by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), with a theme “Together for Consumer Rights,” the Minister conceded that law and order situation was deteriorating and complained that some people of Balochistan were not willing to accept the federal government aid.

He said for the first time there is a sign of hope and sincere efforts made by Federal Government to address the long standing grievances of the Baloch people. It is for the Baloch people to take advantage and enjoy all the benefits in their own interest.

“We are appointing local people as engineer, doctors and teachers. Not imposing outsider, my request is not to loose hope and try to obstruct the way of ‘civil war’,” said Ayatullah Durrani adding that it was PPP that had successfully changed the formula of NFC Award and allocated Rs 152 billions for Balochistan in a single fiscal year.

“Around 25 ministries will be handed over to the provinces, if people continue to carry out attacks on Gas pipelines and other resources then how government can establish a Federal directorate of any ministry in remote areas province owing to security risk. Thus it is essential that people should realize the fact and take part in development activities,” he maintained.

He said that the Federal Government would encourage if any one establishing an educational institution in Dera Bugti and Kohlu whether in the name of Nawab Akbar Bugti or Nawab Khair Bakash Marri, Dr Durrani offered.

He revealed that the government had created around 3700 more jobs in federal corporations for the unemployed youth of Balochistan and would further increase the size of job opportunities to eradicate unemployment.

He claimed that government is taking measures to establish an industry but no one is ready to give the land for this very purpose, “the funds had been allocated but where to spend it.”

Talking about communication system, Ayatullah Durrani said it was very weak in Balochistan and PTA had to do a lot of efforts in order to make it more effective particularly in far-flung area.

While addressing the forum, Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammad Yaseen said that the statistics of recent telecom growth in Balochistan are evident of the satisfaction level of telecom consumers of the area with the quality of telecom services provided to them.

He said that in year 2002 cellular ‘tele density’ in Balochistan was just 0.17% which has grew manifold after the completion level of numerous development projects making this figure much healthier in march 2010 which is 34.3%.

He said that during the last two years overall ‘tele density’ of the province has also grown from 29.3% in 2008 to 36.86% in May 2010. “Total number mobile phone subscribers in Balochistan in last 8 years have increased from 12,539 in 2002 to 2.8 million in May 2010 showing an immense growth rate which in 2003 had reached the highest level of 600.8% a part from the cellular sector”. He added.

Chairman PTA said that fiber optic is being laid from Balochistan to connect with Iran and Afghanistan while it has also been laid across Balochistan to provide telecom access to the local population. He said that PTA has deployed around 62 Rabta Ghars in Balochistan to provide basic telecommunication services especially to the rural population of the province.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Universal Service Fund (USF), Parvez Iftikhar said that the fund has started projects worth Rs.5.87billion in Balochistan, which would help in provisioning of telecom services to far-flung areas of Balochistan. This would bring economic betterment in the area, he added.