Book launch: Public issues not rulers’ priorities, says Zaki

Former diplomat Akram Zaki has said that far-off areas have been ignored by the policy makers and successive governments which has led to a sense of deprivation among the people in those areas.

He was speaking at the launch of book “Balochistan, its Politics and Economics” authored by senior journalist Siddiq Baloch on Friday, said a press release.

Zaki said that the rulers had to curtail their greed for power and money and serve the masses. He mentioned the Soviet interest in Balochistan with a reference to the warm water ports of the province.

He said that the government then had organised a conference of foreign
ministers of the Central Asian countries in Quetta where the government offered port facilities to the landlocked countries at Gwadar.

He confirmed the published reports that Pakistan government had purchased Gwadar on September 8, 1958, but did not name the country that tried to purchase Gwadar from Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2015.