QUETTA, Aug 6: The Governor of Balochistan, Mr Owais Ahmed Ghani, has said that the rights of the people of Gwadar will be fully protected, and nobody can deprive them of their just rights.

He was speaking during a briefing given to him about Gwadar development projects by Director-General of Gwadar Development Authority (GDA), Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri. The governor dismissed a perception that with the development of Gwadar as a port city the local population would be converted into a minority.

"It is a wrong impression," he said, adding that with the construction of the port, the maximum number of jobs would go to the local people. He said that the government had already approved the Gwadar Master Plan, and it was available to anyone who wanted to examine it.

The governor said that most of the residential schemes launched in Gwadar belonged to the local people, and no body could snatch the ownership rights from them. The construction of Gwadar port and other development projects in the city would not only benefit the local people but the entire country, and added that it would usher in a new era of development and prosperity in the province.

Earlier, the Director-General of Gwadar Development Authority said that the federal government had allocated over Rs6 billion for the Gwadar port and the development of Gwadar city in the current budget.

The amount would be spent on various uplift schemes including establishment of a modern fishing town where houses would be constructed for fishermen who would have the latest fishing facilities.

He informed the governor that the federal government had provided Rs10 million to the GDA for imparting technical training to the local youth. He added that 75 youths would be sent to Islamabad while another 25 to Karachi for training.

The training would be free of cost during which the trainees would also be given a monthly stipend of Rs2,000 besides free accommodation. The second batch of youths would be sent for training once the first batch completes its training, he added.