ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The parliamentary sub-committee on Balochistan has finalized its recommendations on political and economic issues and it will be presented to parliament within a fortnight.
According to the committee's recommendations, 10,000 Baloch youths will be recruited in the Frontier Corps by relaxing educational requirements to middle standard. Another sub-committee under the chairmanship of leader of the house in Senate, Wasim Sajjad, is preparing a report on legal issues of Balochistan which is also expected to be completed soon.
The first sub-committee, which held its meeting under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed on Tuesday, decided to form a draft committee comprising Prof. Khurshid Ahmed, Senator Saeed Hashmi, Aslam Buledi and Raza Mohammad Raza to draft the report and submit it to a parliamentary committee headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. Mr Mushahid is convener of the draft committee.
Senators Ishaq Dar and Dilawar Abbas have been co-opted to provide their opinion on economic repercussions of Gwadar port as well as on issues of royalty of oil and gas respectively.
Briefing newsmen on the proceedings and decisions of the sub-committee, Senator Mushahid said that it was time for healing the wounds of the past when elected governments at the centre had deprived the province of its genuine rights, ordered military operations and sacked provincial governments.
Federal Minister for Special Education Zobaida Jalal and Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind were also present. He asserted that the inefficiency of the bureaucracy was hampering the overall development which needed to be removed as Balochistan was a major victim of this lethargy.
Senator Mushahid said he had met Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Chaudhry Shujaat will soon be meeting Attaullah Mengal. The government, Mushahid said, was tackling the Balochistan issue through accelerating developmental activities and through dialogue.
He said the sub-committee had finalized its recommendations after consulting all the stakeholders from the province. The senator admitted that Balochistan had been denied its due rights as a federating unit in the past, but this deprivation would be removed under new arrangements.
Mushahid recalled General Musharraf's commitment which he made in Quetta that no more excesses would be allowed to be meted out to Balochistan in future. He said the subcommittee had addressed in its recommendations the gas royalty, setting up of cantonments, Gwadar port's economic aspects and overall development.
