THIS refers to the ghastly murder of poor and innocent labourers in Turbat. The act has been condemned across the board and many analysts have dissected the issue of security in Balochistan from various perspectives.

Having conducted environmental and social impact assessments for large and small projects, I know that the NOCs granted by the EPA for such projects almost always have a pre-condition binging the proponents to provide employment to local population. The proponents usually commit for as much, specially when it comes to jobs requiring low levels of skill. All major donor agencies and financial institutions also put similar conditions for projects funded by them.

Hence my question is: why were these poor people taken to work there, while the same work could possibly be accomplished by local labourers? Such a practice would have made the project more acceptable to the local population and this deplorable incident might have not taken place.

We should try to understand that these small details are important. When going for large-scale development, or formulating a policy about virtually anything, these ground realities need to be accounted for. Otherwise, the sense of injustice and deprivation could always result in such misdirected and entirely senseless episodes, not only in Balochistan, but in other places like Thar and Diamer.

Ibadur Rehman

Karachi

(2)

TERRORISTS murdered 20 labourers in Turbat. This is horrible news: My deepest condolences to the victims’ families.

Sunday’s Dawn carried a picture that showed Balochistan’s chief minister, Abdul Malik Baloch, helping carry the body of one of the victims. Helping carry a body -- being a pall-bearer — is an act of extreme humility on the part of any individual.

For a chief minister to do this for the body of an ordinary citizen carries a great significance in a culture in which abuse of power and undeserved pomp-and-show are often associated with those in power.

May God bless you, Baloch Sahib, for displaying the inner strengths that many in Pakistan lack. May God empower you to work zealously to find the terrorists who committed this heinous crime and make them face justice.

Siddique Malik

United States

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2015

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