THE cabinet of the provincial government of Balochistan is right to feel outraged at the findings of the Planning and Development Department’s CPEC-related cell, which show that the province has received a miniscule share of the total investment committed under the corridor’s bouquet of projects. And even those projects that were committed have seen no measurable progress over the past five years.
Not only that, two of the largest projects supposedly under the CPEC umbrella (Quetta Mass Transit and PAT feeder to Quetta water supply) are going to be financed by the provincial government’s own resources.
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It is worth recalling that Lahore’s Orange Line train was a high priority CPEC project. In fact, the findings of the CPEC cell, which spent weeks in the field and in poring through the paperwork to generate a snapshot of where the province stands in the overall execution of CPEC, are nothing short of scandalous.
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For example, none of the roads that are part of the so-called ‘western alignment’ have seen any work, whereas another set of roads — the N85 highway running from Gwadar to Panjgur to Quetta — has been shown on the CPEC website as part of the western alignment, even though it was never a part of the CPEC road system.
The findings also show that the power deficit of the province remains at 700MW, despite the additional power generation capacity that has come online around the country since the early harvest projects of CPEC were commissioned.
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All this and more should rightly be a source of extreme consternation for the provincial authorities, who now have an obligation to double down and make a special case for their province and its fair right to the resources that are bundled under CPEC.
Islamabad is abuzz with activity these days as the government prepares for the forthcoming 8th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting that will begin on Dec 20 in Beijing. This is the time for the provincial authorities from Quetta to demand actual, measurable resources for the province.
Some argue that the province has low population density and therefore has lower entitlement to the country’s resources. This argument may be correct up to a point, but the dismally low allocations for Balochistan cannot be justified in this way.
The provincial authorities now need to take their grievances to Islamabad, and ensure that they are programmed properly into whatever agenda the government will be carrying to Beijing next week.
Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2018
Comments (25) Closed
What did the baluchis expect ? Cpec is a non changer for them.
Projects are decided by China.
PMLN government has been lying to everyone about CPEC. All those APCs were just a drama. I hope the current government will fix some of injustices.
CPEC is a game changer
Game changer it is..
CPEC is a game-changer. For whom is an open question.
CPEC is not a road to unite Pakistan.
@Abdul Bais, PTI govt blames everything on PMLN. They can also say that this is drama. But they are not saying, why ?
The game has been changed
CPEC is a game changer!!!
Govt should should consider about the feeling of baluchistan. And should review all agreement like here Malaysia done with china . And perfer national interest on persoal tittle and benifts . National intrest should be the perority in next meeting with bejing. 9pc is not balance ration for Gawader port interm of income.
If you do not give due share of the people living there you can't expect peace. Gilgit Baltistan is another region where not a single project related to CPEC planned except road is passing through it. Federal Planning department inciting chaos by unjudicious distribution of projects. Its against national interest.
No single project for Gilgit Baltistan in CPEC and yet entire route passes through Gilgit Baltistan.
What a shame
This is very shocked to read. Guawader, panjguar and quetta route are stil not the align with western route why ? What PMLN did ? Just destroy the country structure.. and balochistan !
@Prabhjyot Singh madan, what are you doing here???
@Prateik, of course they are, thanks to the previous govts incompetence.
Do not expect investment where they're is no money to be made. The world is about efficiency and results. These are very hard to achieve is a sparsely populated province.
Can someone tell how many CPEC projects are in Gilgit-Baltistan
The ground realities expansively shows the CPEC, to be an economic powerhouse in the making for Pakistan’s future but due to its meager share, not a starter for Baluchistan. A strategically located province with 470 miles coastline, & 43% of country’s area but sparsely populated, though rich in natural resources, remains to be in the clutches of economic deprivity due to abject poverty, lack of employment opportunities, education & health facilities and civil aminties caused by sheer neglect, empathy and indifference of its past rulers.
The development activities ongoing at Gawadar port since 2015, has given stimulus to housing schemes, & other infrastructural development projects, using manpower from other areas mainly Punjab, causing resentment & sense of destitution amongst locals. This needs to be addressed & efforts must be made to train indiginous labor within the country & abroad, & implementing Kafil system successfully used in ME, to create a sense of ownership among locals.
The PTI government is playing innocent putting blame on the previous government. This kind of tricks are very shortsighted.
@Adil Jadoon, Unfortunately this mindset which has been in vogue, since creation of this country, displayed by our educated class as well as rulers, belonging to other comparatively more developed parts of the country, is the root cause of our in-cohesiveness as a nation.
True Baluchistan is sparsely populated but contrary to other areas is rich in natural resources. It has gas & oil in Marri/Bugti areas, Flourite (used in steel production) in Kalat, green marble in Nushki, iron,gold, copper , magnesite near Dabadin, Chagai, chromite in Muslimbagh, Quartzite in Loralai & many others. It has millions of acres of fertile lands at Pat feeder near Sibi, presently used as scanty rain fed agriculture. In addition, having 470 miles long coastline, besides Gawadar, has other natural seaports of Jewani and somiani, to be developed to become future hub of economic lifeline for Pakistan.
Keeping in view the successful development model of Dubai, same mantra can be repeated in Baluchistan too
No offence, but the Baloch are always complaining. They got the new port as part of CPEC. The got the speaker post. They have battalions of soldiers posted for their security. Even our VIPs in other provinces are getting that much security.
The CPEC was a game changer. The Chinese will “change” the game .... but they will “fix” it so that they come up on top, in any case, in all circumstances.
CPEC was first for Nawaz and relatives Then for other ministers and party workers Then for other office holders Finally, if anythinv left over .. for Chinese Nothing for Pakistan ...