Daily Times

Balochistan is considered as the richest province of Pakistan which constitutes 44 percent of the country’s territory. It is also host to multiple natural resources like precious metals, mineral resources and natural gas and the province would easily increase and improve the country’s economic situation if there would be a proper usage of them.

The province consists of several deep coastal areas like Gwadar, Jiwani, Pasni, etc which can easily bring development in the country. Besides this, historically, Balochistan is full of astonishing tourist attractions. If the government pays attention to these places, then thousands of foreign tourists would bring about a huge change.

The weaknesses and failure of the government has hindered the country’s economic development.

Jiwani is considered as a major coastal city like Gwadar and is situated near Pak-Iran boarder, which is too in the list of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, but it still lacks proper attention.

Recently, we (the teachers) visited the coastal areas of Balochistan, including Gwadar and Jiwani, where we could observe the coastal areas’ development and issues faced by the public in those regions and if they have received benefits of the mega projects.

But unfortunately, in 21st century and under the projects of CPEC, people are still deprived of their basic rights and are undergoing multiple issues for example lack of electricity, education crisis, lack of drinkable water, unemployment, poor roads etc which are the signs of failure for the development of Balochistan.

After staying two days visiting Jiwani and Gwadar, we were shocked to know the realities. We couldn’t get electricity for a minute throughout our stay in Jiwani.

Our experiences gave rise to a lot questions. Aren’t these coastal areas the of Balochistan that we, the Balochs, are not receiving a single benefit from their development? Why are we being separated and pushed backward?

Firstly, provide fundamental needs of the citizens, like improvement of education sector, removing unemployment issue from its root, providing electricity and drinkable water to the public properly etc and only then, development could be seen in Balochistan.

Because, development starts with working on these sectors, which are the basic necessities. I would like to ask to the head of CPEC that, if you really want to bring development in Balochistan’s coastal areas, then work on the above mentioned issues, make the public happy by providing their rights at first.

For Balochistan’s prosperity, the rights should be given to the people of Gwadar, Jiwani and the province. I humbly request the Government of Pakistan and the head of CPEC to take serious action regarding the actionable issues to provide equality and necessities to Balochistan’s people first to not face any problems; if not, then no development will take place under these projects at all.

We hope that the leaders of the country would work for development of the main mentioned pillars for bringing development in Balochistan.

The writer teaches at DELTA Academy and he can be reached at shakeelpullaan123@gmail.com