QUETTA, Dec 8: Balochistan Chief Minster Nawab Aslam Raisani has said that agreements signed by the previous government with foreign companies on the Gwadar port and Riko Dik copper-cum-gold projects should be cancelled or reviewed.

“These agreements will not benefit Balochistan,” the chief minister told Dawn in an interview.

He said an agreement had been signed by the Gwadar Port Authority with a Singaporean company for making the port functional. The port was handed over to the company for 40 years with considerable incentives but it has not been made functional.

“I have shared my reservations on the agreement with the minister for shipping and ports and told him that it should be cancelled or reviewed to safeguard the interest of Balochistan.

“The port belongs to my people. It was built on our land and this agreement should be changed in our favour.”

The chief minister said a similar agreement had been signed for the copper-cum-gold project in Chagai district with a Chilean company which was against the interest of the people of the province.

He said he had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his adviser on petroleum and “they have agreed with our stand in principle”.

He said Balochistan was not taken on board on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, but now the provincial government had been invited to a meeting and he had been included in the steering committee.

He said that prime minister’s adviser on petroleum would visit Tehran in the second week of the current month to discuss the project.

Replying to a question, he said only a few of about 900 ‘missing’ people had been recovered, but he was trying to trace them. “I am in touch with the military and intelligence agencies and the interior ministry,” he said.

He said his government had dropped all false cases against political leaders and workers and released many of them.

Cases against Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri and his sons and Sardar Akhtar Mengal have been withdrawn.

The chief minister said he believed the federal government had realised that all constitutional and political issues relating to the province should be resolved as soon as possible.

“All the federating units should be given autonomy in accordance with the Pakistan Resolution of 1940,”he said.

He condemned threats given by some elements to women, internet cafes and CD shops and said: “I will deal very strictly with these elements.”

He said a meeting on the security situation in the province would be held after Eid.