Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has seemingly decided to give a push to development in Balochistan, recent decisions suggest. However, it is not clear if this would yield results as quite a few efforts in the past have fallen short of desired results in a province where the affairs are not in order for long.
This time, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has constituted two special committees to accomplish the task.
They will prepare a program on a fast-track basis for the development of Gwadar Port and other development projects of Balochistan.
Asad Umer who chaired a meeting in Islamabad to discuss various issues related to development work in Balochistan. He set up two special committees in the moot.
A full team including Minister for Maritime Affairs, Minister for Water Resources, Minister for Industries and Production, Minister for Information and Technology, Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Secretary Planning, and senior officials attended the meeting.
Umer told the moot that in the current fiscal year, the federal and provincial governments would spend a total of Rs200 billion on the development of Balochistan.
Of this amount, Rs118 billion will be spent under the Annual Development Plan (ADP) by the provincial government and Rs82 billion under federal the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).
Of the two committees, one will be chaired by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Jehanzeb Khan, and the second one will be co-chaired by Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi, and Commerce Advisor Razak Dawood.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Jehanzeb Khan-led committee would make a plan for the development of Balochistan to improve service delivery in areas of water resources, roads, agriculture, tourism, energy, and infrastructure
will work out a plan for Gwadar development.
Reports said Assad Umer has tasked various government ministries to prepare a program on a fast-track basis for the development of Gwadar and Balochistan, particularly, southern Balochistan.
This special initiative for southern Balochistan is being taken up on the directives of the prime minister who wants urgent and tangible steps taken on priority to bring this under-developed part of Pakistan to a higher level of development.
Headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the National Development Council (NDC) on July 24th had tasked Asad Umar to develop the program in consultation with all the stakeholders.
The planning minister assured the provincial government that his ministry would release money for development projects.
Another report quoted Assad as saying that any plan made for the betterment of Balochistan would be finalized with prior consultation of all the stakeholders of the province.
It is the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide better information technology and energy facilities to the people of Balochistan, and give priority to the weakest segment/areas of the country, said Asad Umar
