QUETTA: The Balochistan National Party’s (BNP) chief organiser, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has stated that prior approval of the people of the area was necessary to initiate any mega development project.
He claimed that the federal government had not taken the provincial government into confidence while entering into an agreement with the Chinese government on the economic corridor project.
Talking to journalists on Tuesday after meeting Mir Sadiq Umrani, the president of the Balochistan chapter of the PPP, the BNP leader alleged that then military ruler Pervez Musharraf had launched a military operation in the province just to start work on the Gwadar seaport.
He said the people of Gwadar had been ignored during the process of construction of a seaport in the town; therefore, “we cannot endorse development projects that violate the rights of the indigenous population”.
The BNP leader asserted that since 1948, they were struggling for the ownership of the Baloch people over the resources and coast of Balochistan, but the “usurpers, instead of accepting the demand, have resorted to violence to quell the political movement for national rights”.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the situation prevailing in the province, he said that despite last year’s change in government, the situation had not improved, as dumping of bodies, disappearance of people and illegal arrests continued, and the provincial government failed to redress the problems faced by the people.
Sadiq Umrani said that the Baloch had reservations over the change being made in the route of the economic corridor.
He was critical of the performance of the provincial government, and said that it could neither curb corruption nor improve the law and order situation.
