Punjab to reap CPEC benefits: Mengal (Page 9)

BNP leader blames govt for instability and backwardness in Balochistan

QUETTA: Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has alleged that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will profit Punjab and its people but leave people in other provinces high and dry.

“I have never opposed any development but again I would clarify that our objective and mission is wide and clear that any development which turns the Baloch people into a minority will be opposed with full strength,” he told a political gathering in Balochistan’s Naushki district on Sunday.

“Gwadar is being developed for outsiders and people of the province will not be even allowed to enter the port city,” he said referring to the recent government’s announcement under which special cards will be issued to the residents of Gwadar. “I have talked about these apprehensions some 20 years ago that Gwadar is being developed not for the Baloch people but for Punjab.”



Speaking to some 16,000 people at the Shaheed Mir Asghar Khan Mengal football stadium, the former Balochistan  CM said his party will support all such uplift projects that create jobs for local people.

“We want to see an educated Balochistan and an educated youth equipped with all modern facilities,” he told a large number of women supporters who were present there, which is unprecedented in an area like Naushki.

Baloch people, the BNP leader said, will protect their dignity and sanctity of the land at all costs. “Poverty, backwardness and low literacy will not be our fate. Our land is rich in natural resources and these resources will be utilised to improve the life of the common people here.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd,  2015.