November 6, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1424

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QUETTA, Nov 5: The provincial general secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Senator Malik Sarwar Khan Kakar, has asked the nationalist parties to come up with positive suggestions regarding their reservations about the Gwadar port to resolve the issue.

Talking to newsmen here on Tuesday after returning from London, he said the issue could be resolved through negotiations on concrete and positive suggestions.

“The politics of confrontation should come to an end as it is not in the interest of the country,” Senator Kakar said, and added that with the construction of the Gwadar deep seaport Balochistan would enter into a new era of economic development.

He appealed to the leadership of nationalist parties to stop opposing the Gwadar and other mega development projects in the larger interest of Balochistan and adopt a positive thinking in this regard.

“We will extend full support to the nationalist parties if they come out with positive suggestions regarding the Gwadar port as the province belongs to all of us,” Senator Kakar said. Country’s interest, he said, was supreme and his party’s aim was to develop Pakistan, especially Balochistan.

Criticizing the politics of nationalist parties, he said they had made Gwadar and other mega projects “an issue just to remain in active politics as they had nothing else to say.”

The PML-Q leader said Balochistan was still a backward province as almost all previous governments committed injustice to it and did nothing to bring it at par with other developed areas of the country.

He said President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali were the first rulers who were paying special attention to the province and had launched various mega projects, including the Gwadar deep seaport.

With the completion of the Gwadar port project, he remarked, Pakistan would have a modern alternate port, which would pave the way for direct economic and trade contacts with Central Asian Republics and other countries.

Rejecting the apprehension of the nationalist parties, Senator Kakar said Gwadar port would not convert the majority of local population into a minority. The project, he added, would play an important role in the development of Balochistan and its people.

He lauded the development package of around Rs10 billion Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf had announced for Pishin and Qila Abdullah districts, and said the government was making all possible efforts to resolve the problems of the people of Balochistan.

Replying to a question, he said the province needed a balanced cabinet and the chief minister should expand it. At present, he added, due to the imbalanced cabinet the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam was the real beneficiary.