Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday stressed that consensus among provinces was necessary for unity and ensuring the “true spirit of a federation” within the country.
Addressing the Balochistan Workshop in Islamabad, PM Shehabz recalled various challenges faced by the people of Balochistan. Noting that some of those challenges required financial resources, the premier recalled meetings in Lahore held ahead of the 2009 National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, which he had attended as the then-Punjab chief minister.
“The question now is how to meet these challenges so that the people of Balochistan – Baloch, Pashtun and all other communities living there – should not only own Pakistan but also feel like active participants and beneficiaries of economic growth.”
PM Shehbaz noted that the issues of Balochistan “will persist tomorrow as well, but to resolve them, one thing should come first; that Pakistan is our home and we have to put out the fire together”.
“Unfortunately, what has happened in the last few years, rather spanning over more than a decade, is a matter of self-introspection,” the prime minister said.
“Baloch people have always been very, very generous to those segments of society who either migrated to Quetta or were living there for ages. Pashtuns, of course, are a part of Balochistan, Punjabi migrants and then other tribes living in Balochistan too,” he asserted.
He further said: “When I speak of Balochistan’s brothers, sisters and children, I am not referring to any geographical division, because we are Pakistanis first, then Punjabis, Baloch, Sindhis or Pashtuns.
“What happened then that distance developed between us, and complaints and grievances came into existence even though terrorism had been completely eradicated in Pakistan in 2018,” he said, terming it a “piercing” question that needed to be answered.