Gwadar decision was well thought-out: Chief Secretary

Selected departments to be moved until city capable of handling pressure.

QUETTA:

Balochistan Chief Secretary Ahmad Bakhsh Lehri has said that initially, selected departments and staff will be moved to Gwadar, which was recently announced as the winter capital of the province.

Defending the chief minister’s decision to establish marginally-developed Gwadar as the winter capital, he said that this move will go a long way in building the infrastructure of remote areas. “The port city’s infrastructure will be built gradually. This is the first step in developing urban facilities in remote areas of Balochistan,” he told a news conference.

Lehri said this decision would also reduce the overwhelming burden on sole urban centre Quetta, citing examples of rapid decline of ground level water in the city and its congested streets and narrow roads. According to him, two more urban centres will be built in the suburbs of Quetta to accommodate the growing population and tackle traffic issues.

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani’s order to make Gwadar the winter capital is effective from October 21 and is meant to last till March 15, 2012. Responding to a query, he said that the decision was not made in haste as Gwadar had been declared winter capital in 2010 nor is it the first time that Balochistan has two capitals. “Earlier, both Sibi and Dadhar were summer capitals of the province.”

Commenting over law and order situation, the CS said that Frontier Corps is already present in Gwadar and security measures are much better than in other areas of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2011.