NATURAL gas was discovered at Sui in 1952 and by 1955 this gas was being supplied to different parts of Pakistan. Being discovered at the Sui fields, natural gas in Pakistan is commonly known as ‘Sui gas’.
Sui, the town which is a mere four miles from the discovery site, itself has no gas supply and people are forced to use wood and coal as fuel. It is pertinent to note what Article 158 of Constitution states: “The province in which a well-head of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from the well-head, subject to the commitments and obligations as on the commencing day.” This means provinces producing gas will receive gas in precedence over other provinces.
Dr Kaiser Bengali in his book, A Cry for Justice: Empirical Insights from Balochistan, describes in detail how Pakistan benefited from the Sui gas field. Till 1969, Sui was the only field which supplied gas to the country. Sui remained the largest producer of gas in Pakistan till the late 1980s.
However, Balochistan got gas supply for the first time in 1982. According to Mr Bengali, Balochistan had paid subsidies of Rs7.69 trillion from 1955 to 2014. This speaks volumes about the contribution of Balochistan to the economic development of Pakistan whereas Balochistan itself has remained economically backward.
The lack of supply of gas to Balochistan is illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, and discriminatory, without lawful authority and jurisdiction. This is also a violation of the constitutional guarantee enshrined in Article 158.
The state should consider the fact that Balochistan, being the producer of Sui gas, deserves to benefit from it fairly. Steps taken towards meeting this demand would alleviate the sense of deprivation that is widely felt by the people of Balochistan.
On the other hand, continuing the policy of discrimination against Balochistan by depriving it of the rightful share of gas will widen the gulf of distrust.
Ghulam Hyder Mugheri
Larkana
Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2020