KALAT, April 1: President General Pervez Musharraf on Friday said that the government wanted to resolve all problems of Balochistan peacefully through political dialogue as military operation was not a solution to the issue. Speaking at a public meeting here after inaugurating the natural gas supply to Kalat, the president said: “We are ready for negotiations because military operation is not a solution to Balochistan problems.”

He, however, made it clear that the government would not tolerate any hurdle in the way of development process. “We will not allow anybody to destroy national installations and will protect them at all costs.” The president said he was in the favour of maximum provincial autonomy and added that he had asked the federal government to decide the issue in parliament.

He agreed to the demand made by the people and political parties of Balochistan that provinces should get more in the National Finance Commission award. “We are ready to accept the demands for enhancement in gas royalty, surcharge and shares of provinces in the NFC,” he said.

The president said he had discussed the issue with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and asked him to evolve a consensus formula under which provinces would get maximum share from the next NFC award. Under that formula, he pointed out, Balochistan should be given a major share on account of gas development surcharge and royalty.

He told the gathering that the centre had provided over Rs13 billion to Balochistan during the last financial year on account of gas development surcharge and royalty. He said the provincial government had been asked to spend maximum amount of gas royalty on those districts where gas and other minerals had been explored.

He said the government would continue to take steps for speedy development of Balochistan despite opposition from some elements.

“Government has resources and wants to utilize them for the welfare of people and development of the country,” he said and held out the assurance that nobody would be allowed to misappropriate the state money.

Balochistan, he said, had been ignored in the past which created a sense of deprivation among people and recalled that he had already offered apology for the mistakes committed by successive governments.

“First of all we are Pakistanis as the world recognizes us with the reference of this soil,” he said, adding “Pakistan without Balochistan and Balochistan without Pakistan is nothing. Pakistan’s honour is Balochistan’s honour.”

Gen Musharraf said the government wanted to pay full attention to the development of Balochistan to bring it on a par with developed areas of the country but some elements were creating hurdles in the development process through shutter-down and wheel-jam strikes. He regretted that people were suffering losses due to these strikes.

He asked the people not to heed the propaganda being spread by those opposing the development process. He sought people’s cooperation and support for executing development projects.

He said all steps would be taken to end unemployment and added that local people were being inducted into army. He said 12 more wings of the Frontier Corps were being set up in Balochistan and next year about 5,000 locals would be recruited in the corps.

He said local youths would get jobs in all mega-projects and added that technical training centres and educational institutions would be set up in the province for the purpose.

He pointed out that property worth Rs6 billion owned by the centre had been handed over to the province for establishing educational institutions and said that Rs15 billion would be provided to the province to improve the education sector.

He regretted that in reaction to a ‘small’ incident rockets and missiles were fired on the Sui gas plant and the FC personnel and added that the FC had returned fire in defence.

He said that no sardar had the right to speak on behalf of the whole Balochistan as people had not elected him their representative through ballot.

He announced that 1,000 free gas connections would be provided in Kalat and said the township would get a Rs50 million grant for its development.

APP adds: He also announced the establishment of a technical training institute for men, a vocational training centre for women, a model village in Killi Shahbaz and improvement of schools in Kalat.