QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri has said that the Quetta Mass Transit Train Service, Gwadar Steel Mill and many other projects of Balochistan had been included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The chief minister, who is the provincial president of the party, was addressing a PML-N workers convention on Sunday. He said the workers were akin to the backbone of the party and the leadership would always respect them.

“The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is a representative party of the masses whose activists have love for it and confidence in its leadership,” Mr Zehri said.

He said it was a testimony of the attachment of the workers with the party that despite intense cold weather and rains they had been sitting for hours.

The chief minister heard the proposals of the workers and later addressed them.

He said that when he was coming to power, his opponents had launched propaganda that he would not give time to the people because he was a tribal leader, but he had been in close contact with them.

He said he had been working hectically and had been able with the patronage of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to put Balochistan on the track of development. He said the province was not poor by any means as it was rich in minerals and there was a need to bring this wealth in use for public good.

He said the PML-N government had focused on Balochistan and it was the result of the cooperation of the federal government that things had improved in the province.

He said peace had been established up to 95 per cent in Balochistan and a network of highways had linked Panjgur, Gwadar, Turbat and many others towns.

Questioning the police reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he claimed that bad performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had shrunk its popularity.

Mr Zehri said those who staged repeated sit-ins wanted to create hurdle in the way of economic development.

Published in Dawn February 6th, 2017