Payback time, finally

For the first time, Balochistan will receive $500,000 as a ‘production bonus’ from a gas producing company

It is relatively rare that reports of positive developments emerge from Balochistan, but the news that the province will for the first time receive $500,000 as a production bonus from a gas-producing company is all the more welcome for that. Balochistan may be mostly barren and arid, with a thinly scattered population, but it is rich in natural resources that have been exploited for decades with little benefit to local populations that live and work around them. It is that sense that the people of Balochistan have been short-changed by those who exploit their wealth, which underlies much of the unrest that exists in the province.



The sum involved at half-a-million dollars is in comparative terms almost small change. Other provinces have been receiving similar — and larger — bonuses from oil exploration and production companies which are at least theoretically if not always in practice, channelled towards social welfare projects. The Marri Gas Company is the entity that will be paying the bonus, which in large part has been the result of a suo motu action by the Supreme Court and the Tando Adam Tehsil bar association. Oil and gas companies are responsible for pollution of the environment in Sanghar district at the same time as doing little to offer jobs, infrastructure development and clean-up operations to local people. This is a picture that can be found across the country where private companies — and some state entities — fail to exercise corporate social responsibility.

Social welfare spending in the broad sense in Balochistan is low as a proportion of the provincial budget and every little effort helps. The challenge now will be in ensuring that this ‘bonus’ finds its way to those most in need of it. The utilisation of what amounts to windfall funding such as this is notoriously riddled by corruption. Balochistan is far behind every other province in terms of development indices, and this half-million dollars is not going to fix much beyond righting a historical wrong. It is to be hoped that this development goes beyond the merely symbolic and brings lasting relief to some of our neediest citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2014.

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