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QUETTA, Oct 3: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Sunday that national unity, integrity and cooperation among all the political forces were imperative to ensuring equal progress in the country.
Talking to a delegation of the opposition, he said the government had full regard for the concerns of the opposition and it was ready to address those through mutual consultation.
He said people of all the provinces, including Balochistan, were patriotic. He expressed optimism that the parliamentary committee constituted by the government would find a solution to all the problems being faced by Balochistan.
He assured the opposition leaders that he would keep in touch with them and said all the citizens would be treated equally. He said the federal government laid special emphasis on the development of the province.
The prime minister said job opportunities were being created in the province and projects initiated for the development of its agriculture and industrial sectors. He said the government had been giving attention to the problems of the provinces without any discrimination. He said development projects had been launched for progress in the province.
He said the government had resumed work on the Saindak copper project but it was closed down because of financial constraints. He said the government had asked China to re-initiate the project. He said the Chinese government had sent its experts and work on the project was being resumed.
He said an Australian firm, after conducting a survey, had indicated that Balochistan had one of the 10 largest copper reserves in the world. He said the firm had expressed its interest in exploiting the reserves, which would generate economic activities and contribute to progress of the province. -APP
Our Correspondent adds: The opposition presented a memorandum related to the problems of Balochistan to the prime minister and claimed that implementation of the demands included in that would develop harmony between the federation and the province.
The opposition leader in the provincial assembly, Kachkol Ali Baloch, told Dawn that the prime minister promised to consider the demands included in the memorandum to address the grievances of the people of the province.
Mr Baloch said the delegation apprised the prime minister of the problems confronted by the people in the province due to the federal government's approach, which was the cause of distrust between the centre and them.
He said the opposition had demanded that the revenue collected from the Gwadar port should be given to the province and its interests should be protected while implementing development schemes.
He said the government should recognize the right of the provinces to collect revenue from electricity, port and gas. He said the delegation had urged the prime minister to respect the resolution adopted by the provincial and the construction of cantonments.
He said the opposition had demanded that the provinces should be empowered to collect one-third of the taxes under the current system. He said a Chinese firm was given 74 per cent share in the Saindak project and the centre, 24 per cent, while Balochistan, which owned the gold was given one per cent.
He said the delegation told the prime minister that the natives were not recruited in the coastal highway project, the Coastguards and the Frontier Corps. He said the federal government should take notice of the frontier corps' excesses.
The memorandum referred to inadequate provision of funds to universities and the education department in the province, he said. Mr Baloch said that the prime minister was informed that the cultures of the Baloch and the Pukhtuns were decaying due to the government's attitude.
He said 14 candidates from Balochistan had qualified the Central Superior Services examination but most of them would be denied jobs as the federal government allocated 3.5 per cent of the posts to the province, while it deserved 5.7 per cent.
Mr Baloch, Senator Amanullah Kanrani of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party's parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal, and MPAs Majid Khan Achakzai, Sardar Azam Musakhel and Muhammad Naseem Turyala met the prime minister at Governor's House.
