QUETTA, April 3: President Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that a gateway would be built in Qamardin Karez in the district of Zhob on the Pakistan-Afghan border to boost trade with Afghanistan and to promote economic cooperation with Central Asian states.

He said that mega-projects in Balochistan worth Rs100 billion would take the province to the centre-stage of regional trade and urged the people to foil designs of elements opposed to progress.

Speaking at a public meeting in the football stadium in Zhob, about 300km north of here, the president said that mega-development programmes in Balochistan were aimed at addressing the grievances of the people of the province, allaying their sense of deprivation and accelerating economic activities.

He reiterated that no obstruction to the development process would be tolerated and the province would continue to move ahead on the road to progress.

Declaring that that Pakistan and Balochistan were indispensable to each other, he said that retrogressive elements would not succeed in their designs to reverse the wheel of progress, maintain the status quo and deprive the common man of the fruit of development.

He said that Sardars and Nawabs ruled the province but did nothing for the welfare of the masses. Now that the government had launched a series of projects to improve the living condition of the people, the

anti-progress forces were creating hurdles in order to retain their domination.

Gen Musharraf said that the Baloch and the Pakhtuns in the province supported the development projects which would link Balochistan with the progress and prosperity of the country.

He said the government wanted resolution of the Balochistan issue through negotiations, but issues could not be settled by observing strikes and shutdowns.

He called for stopping activities which created hurdles in the way of progress, and added that development work could continue only in a peaceful atmosphere.

He said the government was determined to eradicate extremism and terrorism to ensure peace, adding that Islam was a religion of unity, brotherhood and harmony.