QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo has said that 85 per cent of the provincial budget is spent on payment of salaries of government employees and the provincial government is left with little funds to spend on development projects of the province to bring it on a par with other provinces of the country.

Speaking at a function organised by the provincial government here on Friday to hand over reinstatement of job letters to 300 employees of the Communications and Works Department, the chief minister said the province had no enough funds to spend on the Annual Development Programme of Balochistan.

“We are far behind other provinces of the country as far as development projects are concerned due to lack of resources and funds to develop the province,” he said.

Mr Bizenjo said that before 2010, Balochistan used to get very little share in the NFC award on the basis of population and the government was barely able even to pay salaries of its civil servants.

Reinstatement letters given to 300 govt employees

Now, he said, the situation had improved a little bit and the province had some resources to allocate funds for its PSDP.

“When we took over the government, we got a legacy of protests and sit-ins, which we ended by holding talks with protesters and by listening to their genuine grievances. The work done in one year of our government is unprecedented in Balochistan,” Mr Bizenjo said.

“The first priority of my government is to provide jobs to the people and provide the masses with some basic facilities,” the chief minister declared.

“Today is a historic day when we are giving reinstatement letters to over 300 employees of the Department of Communications and Works who had been struggling for a long time for their reinstatement. They were sacked from their jobs by previous governments,” Mr Bizenjo said.

He said that as speaker of the provincial assembly, he had promised to these sacked workers to make every effort to restore their employment despite knowing that it would be a tough job, but “now I have fulfilled my promise”.

He said that instead of blocking roads and holding protest rallies, the people should raise their voice in relevant forums to get their issues resolved. “If your intentions are sincere, the work becomes easy to complete.”

“I am the chief minister of every citizen, as I am from the people. I have instructed relevant authorities not to block roads for protocol during my movements in the province as the people have to face great difficulties because of it and I do not want the people to be disturbed because of my movement,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022