QUETTA: Haq Do Tehreek (HDT) chief Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman has said the provincial government has backed out of the agreement had it signed with HDT leaders accepting its demands, which led to end of the month-long protest sit-in by the people of Gwadar last year.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday along with Gwadar Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Naveed Kalmati as well as other HDT leaders, he said the HDT would launch another protest movement if government would not implement the agreement, as “we will not step back and compromise on the rights of the people of Makran guaranteed by the Constitution of the country”.

Maulana Rehman said the government was not serious in solving the problems being faced by people of the province.

He blamed a nationalist party without naming it for sabotaging the negotiations and impeding the agreement’s implementation. “Not a single demand of the agreement has been fulfilled by the government,” he lamented, adding that illegal trawler mafia was still active and it was operating with impunity in Balochistan’s waters. He said the drug mafia was free to do illegal business, spoiling the youth of Makran.

Maulana Hidayat says govt backed out of pact it signed with group

He said Gwadar was being touted by the government as the future economic hub of Pakistan, but the ground reality was that people were still deprived of their basic rights and amenities. He said not a single anti-snake vaccine was available in hospitals.

He said that 16 cases had been registered by the government against him and 250 workers of HDT. Maulana Rehman said that HDT leaders did not expect justice.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2023