GWADAR: Deputy Chairman of the Senate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri severely criticised Balochistan’s government on Sunday, saying the ruling coalition had miserably failed to solve problems being faced by people since long.

Maulana Haideri, who is also secretary general of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, was speaking at a `peace conference’ in the port city of Gwadar.

“The nationalists had made tall promises to people (during the election campaign) but have delivered nothing,” he said. “People of Gwadar are facing an acute shortage of drinking water.”

He deplored that education and health sectors were also not showing any worthwhile progress despite the government’s claim that it had increased budgetary allocations for the two sectors.

Referring to the China-Pakistan Econo­mic Corridor (CPEC), he said the project would help change the destiny of the region.

“India and other neighbouring countries are not happy with CPEC and have been hatching conspiracies to create doubts and misunderstandings among the provinces on the project,” he said.

He urged the federal government to step in to address reservations the provinces had about the eastern and western routes of the project.

Published in Dawn, February 29th, 2016