QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani on Sunday claimed that the province had received ample funds from the federal government in the past, but a major chunk of the money had been spent by previous provincial governments without proper planning and that their wrong decisions had pushed the province into poverty and backwardness.

“If those huge funds would have been used with proper planning and honesty, the situation in Balochistan would have been different from what it is today,” he said while speaking to reporters at a public gathering in Zhob.

Mr Alyani arrived in Zhob on a day-long visit where provincial Minister for Live­stock Haji Mitha Khan Kakar and senior officials received him at the Zhob airport. During his visit to Sherani, senior officials briefed him on the Sherani Town’s development project.

The chief minister said the previous provincial governments had established the district headquarters of Sherani district at an isolated place without any planning and that huge funds were spent on various schemes wrongly.

He said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif laid the foundation of a highway and declared it the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but such a highway did not exist in the CPEC plan documents.

The chief minister said the Zhob-Dera Ismail Khan-Mir Ali Khail highway was under construction from Kuchlak which would provide access to people from Zhob-Sherani to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.

He said the provincial government was launching development projects for providing maximum facilities to the people and for creating employment opportunities for them.

He laid the foundation of many development schemes, including Yadgar Shuhada and employees housing project and Phase-2 of Mir Ali Khail-Tank highway, and also inaugurated a trauma and burns centre at the district hospital and a road expansion project.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2021