The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been hailed as a game changer for Pakistan and for its most restive and underdeveloped province, Balochistan. It is deemed as the new project of development and connectivity with all its entailing perks and privileges. It is very fortunate that 62 billion dollars are being invested under this ambitious mega project in Gwadar in order to pave the way for Balochistan towards possible progress and change the fate of the province. But the ground realitiesare contrary to that, and no much has been done yet to ease the woes of the downtrodden people of the marginalised province.
The federal and provincial governments are only relying on false comforts and hollow promises regarding the port city’s progress and the province’s prosperity. In spite of being a resource-rich province and the owner of the 62 billion dollar mega project, ironically, the inhabitants of Balochistan are beset by a vicious circle of poverty. The length of the circle is surging alarmingly. According to a report of the United Nations, approximately 71 percent people in Balochistan live below the line of poverty, and that has adversely paralysed the lives of the people.
There is an immediate and pressing need of launching poverty-alleviating programmes for hundreds of thousands of lives but unfortunately, concerned authorities are not showing much interest in this regard.
Unemployment and illiteracy are the biggest challenges of the province. Instead of coping with the challenge effectively, the ratio of unemployment was falsely bolstered in the past several years. Around 18,000 young people, including 7,000 engineers, in Balochistan are jobless despite spending hundreds of thousands of rupees on a graduate degree. It is very frustrating that our young people are drowning in the mire of unemployment and drifting aimlessly in search of jobs. Consequently, a plethora of young people is forced to turn to illegal work, like smuggling of petrol and diesel.
The provincial government should allocate 70 percent quota to provincial engineers in infrastructure and energy projects of the CPEC. Unemployed engineers should be appointed to vacant posts of lecturers in the engineering colleges.
Balochistan has been plagued by a perpetual energy crisis in the past several years owing to the scarcity of clean, efficient and affordable means of energy. Balochistan’s total electricity demand is around 1,650 MW; the electric grid network in the province has the capacity to transmit only up to 650 MW, and the power supply to the province is only around 400 MW. As a consequence of that, the majority of the districts of Balochistan are facing up to 22 hours of loadshedding. The Gwadar city faces 16 hours of power outage. Sometimes, the port city is without electricity for two to three days. Since Balochistan and Gwadar are at the crossroads of development, government should prioritise and resolve the energy crisis on an effective basis.
It is disheartening that the residents of the province also face immense hardships to get access to safe and clean drinking water. They are forced to travel to far-flung areas to bring potable water in buckets. The water crisis is daunting and it needs to be addressed at the earliest. People are clamouring for clean, accessible water for their various needs.
Around 80 percent of the population is forced to drink the contaminated water; as a result, various diseases are common across the province, badly jeopardising the lives of the people. It is a huge slap on the faces of those who made tall claims regarding overcoming water paucity from the province.
The prime minister and the chief minister of Balochistan are urged to sketch out a plan to include solutions to all the deprivations of Balochistan in the mega CPEC project
There is no blinking at the fact that the education sector has been neglected at a large scale for several decades. Students are deprived of their fundamental rights and necessary amenities. It is very unfortunate that Balochistan is on the top of the list in terms of the highest proportion of unemployment with respect to other provinces of the country. According to an education survey, almost 2.5 million children are out of school, but the education authorities fail to make earnest efforts to enrol children who do various jobs to meet the expenses of their family.
The government provides scholarships annually to 7,000 students. Currently, around 25,000 Pakistani students are pursuing their education under the aegis of China, but it is astounding that even 200 students do not belong to Balochistan. This portrays the utter disregard for and sheer deprivation of the province’s students.
The central government has abysmally failed to uplift the deplorable state of education, overcome water scarcity, eradicate energy crisis, minimise unemployment, and alleviate poverty and other drastic challenges faced by the oppressed people of Balochistan. A deep and prevailing sense of sheer neglect and hopelessness besets the entire province because of the corrupt policies and flawed planning of the previous governments. There is a very strong feeling among the folk of the province that the federal government is only interested in exploiting and utilising the natural resources and the oceanic coastline of the province.
The prime minister and the chief minister of Balochistan are urged to sketch out a plan to include solutions to all the deprivations of Balochistan in the mega CPEC project in order to put the province on a new road of progress and prosperity. Concrete and practical measures are to be taken to bring all the available resources into action for the welfare of the people to address the long-standing issues in order to put a perennial end to the sense of deprivation of the province.
The writer is an alumnus of the Dynamic English Language Teaching Academy in Turbat