QUETTA: Commander of Southern Command, Lt Gen Nasir Khan Janjua, said on Thursday that Balochistan would become a stable province soon because its people had united against terrorism and extremism and wanted to make it a peaceful and developed province.

He was speaking at an inter-university short film competition organised by the Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences.

He said that Pakistan had faced a critical situation after 9/11 but it survived because it was an atomic power and its people were united.

“Balochistan has remained in the grip of terrorism and uncertainty but now it has come out of the era of fear as peace has been restored in the province with the joint efforts of civil and military leadership,” Gen Janjua said.

He said that enemies of the country had tried to foment chaos by promoting the ideology of “independence” (of Balochistan) but they could not misguide the youth anymore because people had woken up and wanted peace.

About China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said that Balochistan was fortunate as rising world powers sough to expand their trade through the province.

“The Central Asian Republics and Russia also want to use Gwadar port for trade and we have assured them of cooperation by the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan.”

“Balochistan has been blessed with numerous natural resources and if these resources are utilised, it can become the richest province of Pakistan,” he said.

Gen Janjua praised short films produced by students of different universities and said that the ideas depicted in the films made him optimistic that peace would prevail in Balochistan soon.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2015

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