BY handing over control of the Reko Diq gold-cum-copper project to Balochistan, the government has conceded the constitutional right of the people of the federating units regarding their mineral wealth. The decision has raised hopes that it will help towards diminishing the decades-long tensions between the federation and the provinces. The handing over of the project to the province must also stem widespread speculation that the government was trying to oblige some foreign investors by awarding the project's mining rights to them in a not-so-transparent manner and without taking the province into confidence. The Balochistan chief minister had made it clear to Islamabad that his government wanted to run the project itself and would not accept a decision bypassing it while giving the mining rights to foreign companies.

A government estimate says exports of the processed metals from Reko Diq could fetch at least $500bn, radically changing the economic landscape of the country's least developed province. The Balochistan government has already formulated a programme to set up a refinery which is expected to commence operations once the exploration licence given to a foreign company expires next year. It has allocated a sum of Rs1bn in the provincial budget for this year for this purpose, and appointed a senior scientist as chairman of the board of directors of the project to ensure transparency. With the province taking the necessary steps to start mining and refining the precious metals the government should not waste any more time to make the multi-billion dollar project operational. The work on the project was first launched in 1993 with the award of an exploration contract to a foreign investor. But little has so far been done to make it operational to the detriment of the people of the province. Balochistan's woes, including the presence of separatist elements, owe much to the deprivation of its people and the exploitation and use of their resources by others. The cry of deprivation emanating from the province is genuine. Projects such as Reko Diq could signal a future where Islamabad and its partners in Quetta would be better placed to counter dissent.