12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

QUETTA, Feb 11: The Balochistan National Party (Awami) patron-in-chief, Senator Mir Moheem Khan Baloch, has warned that ignoring the youth in recruitment to the Gwadar-related projects might hit federation-province relations.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, Mir Moheem, whose party holds the finance portfolio in the Balochistan coalition government, stressed that in the new NFC award, resources among the provinces should be distributed on the basis of population, income, area and poverty or backwardness.

The people of Balochistan, he said, had great expectation of getting jobs in the Gwadar uplift projects, but the government disappointed them. He claimed that not a single person of the province was given job in the Gwadar Seaport Authority office at Karachi, Gwadar Trust Office at Islamabad and in the Gwadar Development Authority.

The BNP-Awami leader alleged that the past governments had failed to resolve the employment problem of the Balochistan youth. Though his party cooperated with the current government to remove the grievances of the masses, but a discriminatory approach of certain quarters was creating hurdles in this regard.

He emphasized that the quota of Balochistan in federal services and corporations should be implemented strictly to accommodate the educated young people.