QUETTA, April 7: The Deputy Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, Muhammad Aslam Bhootani, on Saturday demanded of the federal government to take elected representatives and population of the area into confidence before launching any mega project in the province.
Mr Bhootani was reacting to media reports that federal government was planning to build a new port in Sonmiani.
An elected member of the provincial assembly from Hub and Sonmiani constituency, Mr Bhootani said the people of Balochistan were not against the development process but the federal government must take the local people into confidence first before starting any new project in the area.
"The people of the area must know how the proposed project would benefit them, and they should have a guarantee that they won’t face any discrimination in jobs and other matters,” he said.
He referred to the Gwadar Port project and said reservations and apprehensions of the local people were yet to be removed by the federal government about the project.
He said apprehensions of the people of Gwadar had proved true as people of other areas were being recruited at the port after its completion.
He claimed that nazims and other elected representatives of Gwadar district had registered their protest by observing strikes and staging demonstrations against these steps of the federal government.
He said the federal government had learnt no lesson from the Gwadar situation and it was now taking important decisions about Sonmiani without taking the area representatives and people into confidence.
“The outcome of the Sonmiani mega project will be no different from Gwadar," Mr Bhootani claimed.
He demanded of the government to ensure protection of rights of the people of Hub, Dureji, costal highway and Gadani in terms of jobs and lands and they should be given a guarantee that no injustice and discrimination would be done with them.
"Thousands of acres of private land have already been declared the government land in many villages situated along the coastal highway," Mr Bhootani asserted. The deputy speaker further said that Sonmiani was just 80 kilometres from Karachi and influx of outsiders was causing a demographic imbalance and this trend must be checked.
He said the federal government must come up with a satisfactory response and suggestion for the development of the area and remove apprehensions of the local people so that they could play their role in the development of their area.
