Gwadar rights leaders urge government to fulfil agreement

Locals block Ormara-Karachi Highway to record protest before dispersing peacefully

GWADAR:

Protesters blocked the Ormara-Karachi Highway on Thursday, cutting off the Coastal Highway route between Makran and certain areas of Sindh.

The call for the protest was given by Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, the leader of Gwadar Rights Movement, who had led the month-long sit-in in the port city of Balochistan.

Hidayat claimed that the agreement signed last month was yet to be implemented by the provincial government. He accused the authorities of using delaying tactics.

On his call, a large number of people gathered at Zero Point and staged a sit-in at the highway with barricades and hurdles meant to suspend all traffic between Karachi and Makran.

The sit-in remained peaceful throughout the day and was called off in the evening, after which the protesters dispersed.

Speaking to the protesters, Hidayat, Gwadar Rights Movement Convener Sharif Miandad, Wasim Umrani, Naveed Jan Buledi, Khalil Madni and Omer Jan said that nobody would be allowed to control the coast and resources of the province. They reiterated that the people of Balochistan were the real owners of these resources.

They said that the people should be allowed to earn their livelihood in a respectful way. They added that with the closure of border with Iran, and “conspiracies” of some “mafias”, the people of Makran were on the brink of starvation, while illegal trawling continued in Balochistan’s waters.

The rights leaders said that token system persisted for border trade, and some influential people were deriving benefits from it. They also accused authorities of earning illicit money through issuance of tokens for certain businesses.

Talking about deprivation at a larger scale, they said that the people of Gwadar were not getting any benefits from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), rather development projects were being completed in other provinces.

Hidayat warned that if the agreement is not implemented soon, they would stage similar protests in Makran next month.