Prime minister has announced a development package for Balochistan worth Rs20 billion
ISLAMABAD: The prime minister has announced a development package for Balochistan worth Rs20 billion to be spent over a period of 10 years. The package includes provision of better health facilities, clean water and education. However, the province, has issues much severe than these. Over decades, the Baloch population has pleaded to the authorities on issues like forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and the involvement of external and cross-territorial factors in the province in promoting dissent among the national and tribal leaders.
The announcement of the package is politically timed, as it has come just months before the next elections and the package is likely not going to meet its goals given its lengthy time period. It is also least probable to earn the government the much-needed political support until and unless a strong political foothold is set into the province, which is in line with the writ of the state and not the nationalists of the region. Hence, while provision of better and improved standard of living is undeniably important, in Balochistan’s case the government should focus on and prioritise the aforementioned issues.
Laraib Sajid
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2017.
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