ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas Usman Khan Kakar on Friday said 64pc area of Pakistan is less developed but the government has been spending more on developed parts of the country.

All of Balochistan, apart from the Quetta city, is less developed. Similarly, there are less-developed areas in other provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Fata, he told Dawn.

“Less-developed areas are full of natural resources such as coal, oil, gas, minerals and water but they have been ignored. On the other hand, developed areas do not have natural resources but the government has been continuously spending on those areas,” he said.

64pc of Pakistan is less-developed but govt is spending more on developed parts, Senate body chairman says

Even the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is passing though the developed areas and the less-developed parts of the country have been ignored in the mega project.

“I suggest that more funds should be allocated for the less-developed areas to remove the sense of deprivation among the people there.”

Mr Kakar said because of being ignored, people of the less-developed areas were suffering and facing around 20 hours of electricity loadshedding. They don’t have even the facility of drinking water.

He said the rulers only wanted to use the resources of less-developed areas and never invested there.

Earlier, during the meeting of the committee, Mr Kakar directed the government to take steps to control damages caused by floods in the less-developed areas.

The committee showed annoyance over the quality of constriction of small dams, especially in Balochistan.

Mr Kakar said the Malakand Division used to witness small floods every year but for the last a few years the intensity of the floods had increased there.

The discussion was diverted towards floods during a briefing in which officials from the Ministry of Water and Power claimed that 820 small and eight medium dams were constructed in Balochistan while work on 234 more small and four medium dams was in progress.

The committee was told that the 10-year National Flood Protection Plan had been allocated Rs325 billion in the budget for the next year. Attention will be given to building reservoirs and other flood preventive measures in the less-developed areas.

Mr Kakar said out of the 820 dams, around 600 were filled with mud because of a lack of effective work during their construction.

He said though there were excessive rainfall in Balochistan, the province lacked proper reservoirs.

“If once proper dams are constructed, they will not only help in flood prevention but will also store water which can be used as per requirements. Balochistan needs small dams instead of big ones as they will help the population in a better way,” he said.

No end to loadshedding in Balochistan

An official of the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) told the committee that its transmission lines can handle 900 megawatts but the actual demand of the province was over 1,700 megawatts.

He said the city areas suffered 12 to 14 hours’ loadshedding while for the agriculture and rural feeders the power cuts were around 16-18 hours a day.

The committee recommended that the feeders of Qesco should be given relief and the area should experience the same duration of loadshedding as was the policy of the government for other urban and rural areas of the country.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2017